Accusations against Supreme Court justice may bolster anti-democratic rhetoric

As of Jair Bolsonaro’s election as president, the Supreme Court had begun to see itself as a sort of democratic guardrail to counter the head of state’s anti-democratic outbursts. This partly explains some of the court’s recent moves, such as ordering the Senate to kick off a hearings committee to investigate the government’s pandemic response or voting to force the administration into carrying out the decennial census, justified on the basis of respecting citizens’ “right to information.”

But the power the Supreme Court has is founded upon the legitimacy that political actors recognize in it — in effect, understanding its decisions to be unappealable and inescapable. This week, however, revelations have damaged that perception, as the Federal Police asked the court for permission to place one of its 11 members under investigation.

Justice Dias Toffoli was accused of accepting BRL 4 million (USD 759,000) in bribes in order to benefit two defendants he had tried during his stint at Brazil’s top electoral court. The accusations come from Sérgio Cabral, a disgraced former Rio de Janeiro governor who has accumulated dozens of corruption convictions — totaling an impressive...