Supreme Court Chief Justice confronts Bolsonaro after social isolation remark

After President Jair Bolsonaro compared lockdown-like measures to a state of exception, he received an angry call from Supreme Court Chief Justice Luiz Fux.

Sources tell The Brazilian Report the Chief Justice Fux confronted Mr. Bolsonaro, in a call that was “short and curt.” The head of the Supreme Court asked if he would “have to return from Rio de Janeiro [to Brasília] to settle the crisis.” To which Mr. Bolsonaro responded that his remarks were “misinterpreted by the press.”

He says he only tried to tell supporters that governors’ moves are “similar to a state of exception, which can only be enacted by the president.”

The Bolsonaro administration asked the Supreme Court to declare restrictive measures adopted in Brasília, Bahia, and Rio Grande do Sul as unconstitutional. A source within the court told us that the 11-justice bench is leaning towards upholding its April 2020 decision, giving states and municipalities jurisdiction over such measures.

But the Supreme Court has proven to have little regard for its own precedents and gives the impression that it can shift its interpretation of the law based on the political circumstances.

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