How outspoken are judges allowed to be away from the bench? Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was widely criticized for her public remarks about Donald Trump, but there are other judges who have tried to walk the tightrope that Ginsburg fell off.

“Becoming a judge is a lot like being gelded,” says Judge William Bedsworth, who serves as an associate justice for the Fourth District of the California Court of Appeal. “Which is frustrating. By definition we’re interested in the political process, and we’re highly educated. We would love to speak out.”

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Indeed the courts’ legitimacy is the major matter protected by the restrictions on judges’ speech. “Putting on a robe, not engaging in politics, not engaging in fundraising—there are a whole range of things that the judge does that are designed to impress upon the judge him- or herself- that in their judicial role they are supposed to be impartial,” says Michael McConnell, a former judge on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and now the director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford. “When I left the bench and people asked why, I told them—only semi-jokingly—that I wanted my First Amendment rights back.”