A vote for Roberts

Re “Roberts Gains Respect, if Not Converts,” Sept. 16

What is the Constitution? Is it a “living Constitution” (Earl Warren) or a “dead Constitution” (Justice Antonin Scalia)? Is it a “flexible Constitution” (FDR)? Thomas Jefferson felt that the Constitution ought to be changed every generation. In my own view, as a political scientist, I go along with Roosevelt’s definition: It is a flexible document that can be “stretched” to fit existing conditions. From John G. Roberts Jr.’s testimony, I gather he will be neither Warren nor William H. Rehnquist but his own man who will judge cases as he sees them without prejudice. Though I’m a liberal, I would vote for him.

AKE SANDLER

Los Angeles