President Trump nominated Lawrence VanDyke to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He previously served as the solicitor general of Nevada and Montana. As the top appellate lawyer of two states in the Ninth Circuit, VanDyke argued two dozen cases and briefed scores more. (I worked with VanDyke on several cases over the past few years.) By any objective measure, VanDyke is qualified to serve as a federal judge.

The American Bar Association, however, rated him “not qualified.” On the eve of VanDyke’s confirmation hearing, the organization released a two-page letter relaying anonymously sourced criticisms. But I find many of the allegations are simply implausible, and border on misleading.

For example, the letter stated, “In some oral arguments [VanDyke] missed issues fundamental to the analysis of the case.” Oral arguments are matters of public record. It should have been easy enough to cite several, or at least one, case in which VanDyke missed a fundamental issue. But the letter offers no such citation. (The law professor Orin Kerr reviewed a few of VanDyke’s arguments, and said he seemed to be a “very good advocate.”) Likewise, the letter asserted that “his preparation and performance were lacking in some cases in which he did not have a particular personal or political interest.” If some objective evidence exists to back up this accusation, none was provided. The letter said VanDyke was “lacking in knowledge of the day-to-day practice including procedural rules.” But it offered no evidence to support this claim, either.

Other claims in the letter were quite personal. For example, based on “assessments of interviewees,” the ABA reported that “VanDyke is arrogant, lazy, [and] an ideologue”; “lacks humility”; and “has an ‘entitlement’ temperament.” And it reported “a theme” that he “does not have an open mind, and does not always have a commitment to being candid and truthful.”

Who would make such unfounded accusations? The letter states that the ABA’s evaluator conducted “60 interviews with a representative cross section of lawyers (43), judges (16), and one other person” who have worked with VanDyke. Those interviews included “attorneys who worked with him and who opposed him in cases and judges before whom he has appeared at oral argument.” Did all 60 people have the same opinions? The letter itself concedes that they did not, stating that “the interviewees’ views, negative or positive, appeared strongly held on this nominee.” Those positive views are not relayed in the letter, though, and it gives no indication of how widely held the negative views actually were.

Indeed, there is some evidence that the interviewees who supported VanDyke’s nomination were not asked to rebut such slanderous charges. Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt told National Review that when he was contacted by the ABA, he’d spoken of VanDyke in glowing terms. (His assessment matches my own.) Laxalt was interviewed by Marcia Davenport, a Montana trial attorney who led the ABA’s evaluation. Laxalt said that the interview was “short and perfunctory,” and that Davenport “did not ask me to comment on anyone else’s critiques of his character or professionalism.” Nor did she ask Laxalt to comment on VanDyke’s most important cases during his tenure as Nevada solicitor general. Laxalt told Fox News that Davenport “seemed completely disinterested.” If people told Davenport that VanDyke was “arrogant” and “lazy” and routinely made errors in his professional dealings, then Laxalt and other interviewees with more positive impressions should have been given a chance to address those accusations.