Vice President JD Vance was mocked Sunday for seemingly lacking a fundamental understanding of democracy after he suggested that judges shouldn’t be allowed to “control the executive’s legitimate power.”
Despite graduating from Yale Law School in 2013, Vance questioned the authority of judgeships in an X post Sunday, writing: “If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal.
“Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” he concluded.
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Vance was responding to a federal judge’s decision to block Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing Treasury Department payment systems.
While some, including Musk, applauded Vance’s comments, others were quick to criticize the vice president’s post for its seeming disdain toward the government’s system of checks and balances.
New York Rep. Daniel Goldman replied to Vance: “It’s called the ‘rule of law’ @jdvance. Our constitution created three co-equal branches of government to provide checks and balances on each other (‘separation of powers’).
“The judiciary makes sure that the executive follows the law. If you do, then you won’t have problems,” he continued.
Another X user wrote, “JD Vance, a Yale-educated lawyer and sitting VP, claims judges can’t check executive power.
“That’s literally their job,” they continued. “Courts overturned Nixon, Bush, and Trump. If judges couldn’t rule on executive actions, presidents would be kings.”
“Read the constitution,” DNC vice chair David Hogg wrote.
On Saturday, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer ordered a temporary restriction on DOGE’s access to Treasury Department payment systems, claiming that a risk of “irreparable harm” is on the horizon unless emergency relief is provided.
In response, the tech billionaire called for Engelmayer’s impeachment and described him as “corrupt.”
“A corrupt judge protecting corruption. He needs to be impeached NOW!,” Musk wrote on X Sunday.
In another post that same day he argued, “I’d like to propose that the worst 1% of appointed judges, as determined by elected bodies, be fired every year. This will weed out the most corrupt and least competent.”
