RALEIGH — President Donald Trump has nominated a law professor who previously worked as a prosecutor, defense attorney and journalist to fill the nation's longest federal judiciary vacancy.
Trump nominated Richard E. Myers on Wednesday to be a federal judge in the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Raleigh lawyer Thomas Farr had been nominated four times — twice by President George W. Bush and twice by Trump — but was blocked in the Senate over his legal work that critics say disenfranchised black voters. President Barack Obama nominated two black women for the judgeship vacant since January 2006; Republicans blocked both.
Myers was born in Jamaica. Sen. Thom Tills, a supporter of Farr's nomination, cited Myers' work advising the University of North Carolina's Federalist Society chapter in calling him an "outstanding choice."