Talk:Lawrence VanDyke

Deletion issues
Major portions of this page have been deleted based on alleged POV issues, and the deleting editor suggested that I take this to the talk page. Deletions have included basic factual information that provide vital context for the items that have not been deleted. All quotes except those of the nominee making unsubstantiated allegations have been deleted. Deletions are happening so quickly that I have been unable to add citations at some points before my contributions are deleted. I am a new user and would appreciate commentary from the group on which of these deletions are or are not appropriate. Daphnebluedbw (talk) 04:15, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
 * What exactly would you like added back in and what are your Reliable Sources for it? Tchouppy (talk) 14:56, 1 November 2019 (UTC)


 * Yes, I recommend discussing things here first. Also familiarizing yourself with WP:BLP and WP:NPOV/WP:DUE/WP:SYNTH would be helpful. Adding subheadings like "Fitness Questions Raised During Montana Supreme Court Race" is decidedly not neutral. Many of the recent additions to this page appear to resemble an attempt to make this into an WP:ATTACK page by basically adding an opposition research memo to the page. That's not what we do here. This should be an encyclopedic overview of the man's biography. Marquardtika (talk) 21:38, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for the comments. There is no attempt to attack here; statements that are not neutral enough are the product of being a new editor. I have attempted to correct this issue, but there seems to be resistance to the idea of posting about this nominee's history on gay rights, which was the major topic of his hearing so is newsworthy. Additionally, this nominee's fitness for office was questioned in the past; this seems highly relevant given the major issue at the hearing was his "not qualified" rating based on his current fitness for office. Virtually every news article about this nominee right now is addressing one or both of these issues. The wikipedia page looks incomplete without discussing them. Daphnebluedbw (talk) 22:22, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

Deleted sentence
I have just deleted the following sentence from the section entitled "Nomination to Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals":


 * These criticisms ignore the body of reports outside of the ABA that confirm the ABA’s findings.

The sentence referred back to a preceding paragraph that laid out conservative objections to the ABA's evaluation of VanDyke.

The sentence violates WP:SYNTH because three of the four cited sources do not even mention (let alone confirm) the ABA's findings. The most that could be said of those three sources is that they tend to corroborate the ABA's findings. The sentence violates WP:V and/or WP:RS because all four of the cited sources are primary sources. The sentence violates WP:NPOV because it fails to mention that three of the cited sources are left-leaning organizations and that the other is a Democratic former elected official who had unsuccessfully run for office against Adam Laxalt, who appointed VanDyke to the position he held in Nevada. Frankly, I would argue that it also violates WP:DUE for the same reason (what is noteworthy about Democrats and left-leaning organizations opposing a Republican judicial nominee)? SunCrow (talk) 11:38, 16 December 2019 (UTC)

Highly suspect biographical details from overly politically affiliated 3rd parties
The "evidence" to support claims of his education record are from the national review. This is so far over the line the territory where *the simplest and most logical explanation is to always assume that the source is lying or misleading*. I do not believe that this represents a good enough quality outside source for those claims to stand. A viable option would be a yearbook, publication in a local newspaper, something I am absolutely CERTAIN exists for Montana State University during the late1990s when claims to have attended and graduated (*in 2 years no less!* since, assuredly, he must have succeeded in transferring the credits from his bible college to his bacehlorrs degree in *civil engineering*). I'm gonna do some more checking but I will be editing this page soon if nothing can be found.67.165.123.62 (talk) 02:53, 14 September 2023 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure exactly what you're disputing but his educational record is listed here at the Federal Judicial Center. Marquardtika (talk) 16:50, 14 September 2023 (UTC)