He is a person of proven legal brilliance and judicial temperament, and he is respected by scholars on the left as well as on the right,

The sense is that he is very highly qualified and has an excellent judicial temperament, which means he is seen as a calm and thoughtful person, which is what you want in a judge,

But they were gathering dust in some courthouse basement. These things were technically accessible, but unless you had a lot of time or could afford to hire a private detective to go look this stuff up, they were effectively secret from you.

I sympathize with this person, but it's really not any different than a posting on an anonymous Web page.

who answered questions in great detail and got rejected.

I t is a normal part of the employment process to evaluate one's subordinates.