Gonzales: Roberts not bound by 2003 statement

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says that Judge John Roberts, if appointed to the Supreme Court, is not bound by his 2003 statement that, as an Appeals Court judge, he accepts _Roe v. Wade_ as “settled law.”
In short, an Appeals Court judge has no power to overturn Supreme Court precedent; therefore, an Appeals Court judge *must* accept Supreme Court decisions that stand. A Supreme Court justice, however, is not bound by the Court’s own precedent.
This is also noteworthy, considering how many of us were worried about Gonzales as an SC possibility, precisely because he’d made similar statements as a jurist.

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