Modesty is, of course, the best policy

John Roberts is known for his modesty, he swears.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 - In his first written response to questions from the lawmakers who will review his nomination to the Supreme Court, Judge John G. Roberts Jr. told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that judges must possess "a degree of modesty and humility," must be respectful of legal precedent and must be willing to change their minds.

Unless you know him.

In documents he prepared for his colleagues in the Justice Department, Mr. Roberts, who was chosen by President Bush last week for a seat on the Supreme Court, was candid and blunt. In one memorandum that he sent to a superior in late 1981 with a report on affirmative action by the United States Commission on Civil Rights, a document containing views he did not agree with, he advised, "I do not recommend reading it."

Helping to prepare materials for a speech to conservative groups by the attorney general, Mr. Roberts reviewed criticism of the Justice Department under President Ronald Reagan as being too liberal and offered a response that was cogent and explicit in a way that a document for more public consumption might not have been.

"The best approach would be to disparage attacks on the ideology of lower-level appointees as impertinent (in the pure, not popular sense of that word) and perhaps even as efforts to avoid or at least obfuscate discussion of the merits," Mr. Roberts wrote in a February 1982 memorandum

Perfect. Another arrogant Catholic on the Supreme Court.