Bobby Jindal, the Indian-American governor of louisiana and one 17 Republican presidential hopefuls, may be trailing in national polls, but he is doing all he can to humour his party’s hardcore conservative base and improve his standing in the scheme of things.
Jindal, who rejects the Indian-American label and instead calls himself an unhyphenated American, is now targeting the US Supreme Court for its recent pro-liberal pronouncement in favour of same-sex marriage, apart from its endorsement of “Obamacare”, President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare reform that Republicans are bent on repealing, but have not been able to.
If given the chance, Jindal says he would “get rid of” the nine judges of the apex court. If his earlier formulation of getting rid of the entire Supreme Court does not appeal to the Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, Jindal said he has a compromise.
“Instead of getting rid of the entire Supreme Court, what if we got rid of about two-thirds of the Supreme Court,” he quizzed at the RedState Gathering in Atlanta on Friday. “I mean there are three justices that got it right. I wouldn’t mind keeping [Samuel] Alito, [Clarence] Thomas and [Antonio] Scalia. It is the other six I wouldn’t mind getting rid of,” he said, referring to Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Stephen G. Breyer and Justice Elena Kagan.
Five of the court’s nine justices have been appointed by Republican presidents, while four have been chosen by Democratic presidents.
Justices Roberts and Kennedy, although appointed by Republican presidents, ruled in favour of both Obamacare and same-sex marriage.