Cory Booker: “I rise to speak about the nomination of Thomas Farr to serve as a district judge for the Eastern District of the great…”

“I rise to speak about the nomination of Thomas Farr to serve as a district judge for the Eastern District of the great State of North Carolina. Over the past year, I have joined many of my colleagues in the Senate, my esteemed colleagues in the House, and really people from all across the country who have been speaking out about Mr. Farr's troubling record. We see many district court judges come before the U.S. Senate, but I think none has triggered this kind of tumult, this kind of frustration, and this kind of outcry. We have seen an outpouring of advocacy and activism that is now coming around this nomination, but this nomination--and the energy and advocacy of Americans speaking out against it--is, frankly, not about politics. It is not about partisanship. It is about something deeper than just left or right. This is about right or wrong. We are a nation of people who I believe have so much more in common than we have apart. The lines that divide us are nowhere near as strong as the ties that bind us. What binds us? We are bound together not because of many of the more obvious historically held things that hold people together. It is not our language or our religion or our race that holds this Nation and her people together. We are bound to one another because of the ideals we share. We say them in our anthem. We say them in our salute and in our pledge. We know we are a nation of principles and ideals.…”