In response to a judge blocking President Donald Trump’s order banning transgender people from military service, Elon Musk wrote on his social media platform: “This is a judicial coup. We need 60 senators to impeach the judges and restore rule of the people.”
Putting aside the subjective assessment that rulings against the Trump administration constitute a “judicial coup,” the impeaching body is the House of Representatives. If a House majority votes for impeachment, then the matter moves to the Senate, where two-thirds of senators — that would be 67, not 60 — are required to vote for conviction (which, for example, they declined to do for both of Trump’s impeachments in his first term).
Musk’s writing on Wednesday follows Chief Justice John Roberts’ rare public statement a day earlier that rebuked the notion of impeaching judges based on disagreement with their rulings. “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” Roberts said.
It’s not the first time that Musk’s public pronouncements have suggested that the powerful government employee and world’s richest person could benefit from a better understanding of basic government functions. Last month, for example, he proposed “that the worst 1% of appointed judges, as determined by elected bodies, be fired every year.” That proposal was in tension with the Constitution’s provision that federal judges “shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour,” which has been taken to mean life tenure.
But to the extent that Musk was aware of judges’ tenure protections and was suggesting a new regularized impeachment process, he might want to keep the requisite constitutional math in mind.
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