North Carolina racial gerrymandering and voter identification law[edit]
Farr represented Republican state legislators in lawsuits related to redistricting and voter identification changes which were struck down by a court as racially biased.[3][4] Farr, who was involved with drafting the 2013 North Carolina voter I.D. law, had in court defended voting restrictions that were later struck down by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which wrote that the law targeted African Americans "with almost surgical precision."[4][5] Newsweek described Farr as having a "history of working on voter suppression...part of a wider Republican effort that critics say disenfranchises African-Americans and the poor."[6] In 2010, he advised the North Carolina General Assembly in what federal courts termed a "racial gerrymander" of the state's voting districts.[7]
In 1990, Farr played a role in an unlawful effort at voter suppression conducted by the Jesse Helms re-election campaign, aimed at preventing African Americans from voting.[5] The campaign mailed 150,000 postcards to residents in African-American neighborhoods stating that the recipients were not eligible to vote and would be imprisoned if they showed up at the polls.[6][7] When the campaign was sued by the Department of Justice, Farr defended it and in 1992, after the election was over, signed a consent decree.[6]
