WASHINGTON _ Thomas Farr moved one step closer to final confirmation to become a district judge in the Eastern District of North Carolina. With Vice President Mike Pence casting the tie-breaking vote, the Senate agreed to limit debate on Farr's nomination, setting up a final vote Thursday.
President Donald Trump nominated the 64-year-old Farr to be a U.S. District Court Judge in the Eastern District of North Carolina in 2017 and again earlier this year. Though Farr, a Raleigh, N.C., attorney, cleared a Senate committee in January, his nomination has languished in the Senate _ as Democrats and civil rights groups hammered him as hostile to voting rights for blacks.
All 49 senators in the Democratic caucus, which includes two independents, voted against moving Farr's nomination forward. Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, also voted against the nomination, citing the refusal of the Senate to take up a bill aimed at protecting special counsel Robert Mueller. But the Senate's other 50 Republicans all voted to advance Farr to a final confirmation vote.
