If Indian-American Republican presidential candidate Bobby Jindal has his way he would toss out a half-dozen members of the US Supreme Court, including a couple nominated by Presidents George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.
After the apex court's recent 5-4 ruling in favour of same-sex marriage and 6-3 ruling in favour of Obamacare subsidies, the Louisiana governor Jindal said the court appears to be more interested in following public opinion polls than abiding by the Constitution.
Since announcing his candidacy in June, he has suggested that America could save some money by shuttering the court, but on Friday he offered to make a compromise at the RedState Gathering, a convention of Republican officials, in Atlanta, Georgia.
"Hillary Clinton didn't like that answer," Jindal said Friday at the RedState Gathering as cited by the Washington Times.
"She thought that was extreme, so I have a compromise: instead of getting rid of the entire Supreme Court what if we got rid of about two-thirds of the Supreme Court.
"I mean there are three justices that got it right," he said.
"I wouldn't mind keeping [Samuel] Alito, [Clarence] Thomas and [Antonio] Scalia. It is the other six I wouldn't mind getting rid of."
The six members he would remove include Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., nominated by Bush, and Anthony M. Kennedy, nominated by Reagan.
Justices Roberts and Kennedy ruled in favour of the Obamacare subsidies.
Justice Kennedy also supported the same-sex marriage ruling.
Jindal also told the gathering he would "repeal and replace all of Obamacare" and implement a consumer-oriented alternative, according to the Daily Signal.
He called for efforts to secure the border and "crack down on sanctuary cities," and hold local officials in those cities accountable for flouting federal and state law.
Meanwhile, a Huffington Post columnist suggested that "Bobby Jindal Has Antiquated Views On Immigrant Assimilation"
During Thursday night's second-tier Republican candidate debate, Jindal proclaimed that "immigration without assimilation is an invasion," telling immigrants to "learn English, adopt our values, roll up your sleeves and get to work."
Jindal frequently says that he disagrees with people who don't think immigrants should assimilate, and he believes that immigrants should not be "hyphenated Americans."
But many experts and scholars of immigration say his views are from a bygone era, and both the idea and the process of assimilation is complicated, the Post said.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
