(Washington, DC, November 29, 2018) – Today, Sharon McGowan, Legal Director and Chief Strategy Officer of Lambda Legal, issued the following statement after Senator Tim Scott announced that he would oppose Thomas Farr, Donald Trump’s nominee to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina:

“Sadly, 2018 will still go down in history as the year Republicans used every trick in the book to suppress black voters and deny equal access to the ballot box for every American. The midterm election made clear that Republicans were willing to use photo ID laws, gerrymandering, and voter intimidation to target voters of color.

“But today, the Republican strategy to undermine black voters hit a road-block after a second Republican senator, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, announced he would oppose the nomination of Thomas Farr to the federal court in North Carolina, bringing the total vote against Farr to 51 senators, all troubled by Farr’s well-known history of voter suppression. Once again in the face of his colleagues’ total abdication of their responsibility, Senator Scott deserves to be commended for demanding fair, sensible, and bipartisan nominees from the Trump Administration. Lambda Legal believes access to the ballot box must always be open to all, regardless of race, sexual orientation, or gender identity. We hope that the Trump Administration receives the message that these kinds of nominees are simply unfit for the bench.”