UNC law professor nominated for federal judgeship, ending bid by NC voting maps defender

President Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated Richard Myers, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, to a vacancy on the federal bench.

Posted 12:00 a.m. Aug 15, 2019 — Updated 12:00 a.m. Aug 15, 2019

Matthew Burns

, WRAL.com senior producer/politics editor

RALEIGH, N.C. — President Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated Richard Myers, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, to a vacancy on the federal bench.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Myers would fill a seat in the federal Eastern District of North Carolina that has been open for almost 14 years, when Judge Malcolm Howard took senior status, a form of semi-retirement accorded federal judges.

The move ends Trump's earlier push to appoint Raleigh attorney Thomas Farr to the judgeship. Hid bid sank last November when U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the lone black Republican in the Senate, joined with Senate Democrats to oppose the nomination.

Farr has been the go-to guy for Republican legislative leaders in recent years to fend off challenges to their actions.

Several times, he argued that voting maps drawn in 2011 were legal. Federal courts have found that both congressional and legislative maps were drawn illegally, packing too many black voters into certain districts to make other districts more amenable to GOP candidates. He is now defending legislative maps drawn in 2017 to replace invalidated ones against claims that they are too partisan in favor of Republican candidates.

Farr also defended changes to state elections laws, including a photo identification requirement for voters, which federal courts also overturned.

Myers, a native of Jamaica, grew up in Wilmington and graduated from UNC-Wilmington and the UNC Law School. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney in California before transferring in 2002 to the Eastern District of North Carolina in Raleigh, where he prosecuted white collar and violent crimes and headed the district's Violent Crimes Task Force for Wilmington and New Hanover and Pender counties.

He joined the UNC Law School faculty in 2004 and is now Henry Brandis Distinguished Professor. He also has been a contributor and advisor to the UNC Federalist Society since 2005.

"Professor Richard Myers is an outstanding choice by President Trump; a well-qualified nominee who possesses a wealth of legal experience and an inspiring personal story of living the American Dream," Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said in a statement. "Professor Myers’ extensive experience serving in the Department of Justice prosecuting white collar and violent crime, as well as his well-deserved reputation as one of our state’s best legal scholars, provide him with the background and qualifications required to serve the Eastern District with distinction."

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