On top of seemingly supporting defiance of court orders in the face of Trump administration legal losses, Elon Musk just proposed on his social media platform “that the worst 1% of appointed judges, as determined by elected bodies, be fired every year.”

But the Constitution says that federal judges “shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour,” which has been taken to mean life tenure. Of course, judges can be and have been impeached, which Musk also just called for after a temporary ruling that was adverse to him and the Trump administration.   

In theory, members of Congress could systematically start impeaching whichever judges they deem “the worst” each year. Whatever “the worst” means, it’s unclear whether Musk is referring to the congressional role in the impeachment process or was proposing a new thing from scratch. At any rate, only a relative handful of federal judges have been impeached throughout U.S. history, so this very hypothetical proposal would revolutionize both the frequency of impeachments and the reasoning behind them or lack thereof. The historical norm for judicial impeachments (and even rarer removals) has generally been based on judges’ ethical or criminal misconduct, rather than their rulings.  

But Musk’s proposal is a useful reminder of why federal judges are insulated from the political process by design. A Brennan Center analysis that surveys the historical record noted that job security “is one important contributor to maintaining judicial independence — so that judges are deciding cases based on their understanding of what the law requires and not worrying that they could be removed from office if powerful political actors disagree with their rulings.”

Indeed, Musk is nothing if not a powerful political actor — perhaps even more so in some ways than at least some of the members of Congress who wield the impeachment power. His proposal therefore reinforces why the way to avenge adverse trial court rulings is to appeal them, rather than to fire the judges who make them.

Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in Donald Trump’s legal cases.