Washington DC - Vice President JD Vance has been schooled online by people calling for him to pick up and "read the Constitution" after he displayed an embarrassing lack of understanding of the political system.

Leaders in the Democratic Party have launched a series of social media attacks against Vance after an apparent misunderstanding of the relationship between the judiciary and the executive in the US Constitution.

In a post on X, Vance on Sunday questioned the power of a judge over the executive branch after Elon Musk was blocked from accessing the Treasury Department payment system.

"If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal," Vance said in the post.

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"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."

In the US system, the judiciary branch is meant to uphold a "separation of powers" whereby the executives' actions can be legally checked but not controlled by the Supreme Court.

Judges then depend on the executive to enforce court decisions.

The post triggered a rapid response from some Democrats, who criticized Vance's misunderstanding of how the separation of powers works in the US Constitution.

"It's called the 'rule of law'," said Congressman Daniel Goldman in response to the post.

"Our constitution created three co-equal branches of government to provide checks and balances on each other. The judiciary makes sure that the executive follows the law. If you do, then you won’t have problems."

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David Hogg, the Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) took to X to simply tell Vance that he should "Read the constitution."

The Trump administration and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have faced challenges from the courts over their ability to access Treasury data.

In response, Musk on Sunday called for a judge to be impeached.

"Yale Law School should be embarrassed," said former Congressman John Yarmuth. "The judge's legal role is to define what executive powers are legitimate. It’s called separation of powers, which you apparently don’t believe in."