[JURIST] In an interview with the Associated Press reported Tuesday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [Wikipedia profile] said he would reconsider his predecessor John Ashcroft's policies [AP article] on public access to government information. In October 2001 Ashcroft tightened existing policies on information requests, requiring federal agencies to carefully consider national security, law enforcement concerns, and personal privacy before releasing information under the Freedom of Information Act [DOJ FOIA guide]. In the same interview Gonzales also spoke about Supreme Court nominee John Roberts [AP article], saying that Roberts would not be bound by his 2003 congressional testimony that Roe v. Wade [Wikipedia backgrounder] was "settled law." Gonzales added that as a circuit court judge, Roberts was bound by precedent, but as a Supreme Court Justice he was not obliged to follow precedent he thought was wrongly decided.