Trump nominates black lawyer for judicial vacancy

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump has nominated a black law professor who previously worked as a prosecutor, defense attorney and journalist to fill the nation’s longest federal judiciary vacancy.

The News & Observer reports Trump nominated Richard E. Myers 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.

Obama nominated two black women for the judgeship vacant since January 2006 and Republicans blocked both.

GOP 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.”