Judicial politicization is a problem in Brazil, but not as much as in the U.S.

It is not hard to recall Jair Bolsonaro’s frequent criticisms of the Supreme Court during his four years in office — they usually coincided with some of the tensest moments of the former president’s tenure. Indeed, he came closest to calling for a democratic break when he felt personally affronted by some of the justices. Mr. Bolsonaro was not, however, the first to decry the perceived excesses of the justice system. 

Over the course of the Workers’ Party’s first 13 years in power, there were frequent lamentations that the courts were generally hostile to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (who served two terms between 2003 and 2010 before being elected again in 2022) and members of his party. 

From that perspective, Lula’s arrest in 2018 was simply the culmination of longstanding institutional animus. Former federal judge Sergio Moro, who was later revealed to have been unduly colluding with the prosecution in Lula’s case, was the tip of the spear. 

The situation has now flipped. Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters are the ones complaining about the...