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✊ Brazil’s legal stand for democracy
For the first time in history, the Supreme Court will try a former president and high-ranking military officers for crimes against democracy. Here's how Brazilian law handles such cases.
Isabela Cruz
July 27, 2025
LAW AND DEMOCRACY
The guardrails protecting Brazil’s democracy
Lady Justice statue in front of Brazil's Supreme Court. Photo: V. M. M./Shutterstock
After President Donald Trump inserted Brazil’s Supreme Court into his foreign policy agenda — tying trade tariffs to the criminal case against far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro — comparisons between the American and Brazilian legal systems have surged in political commentary.
“In the future, all American school kids must be made to study the Constitution. Not ours, Brazil’s,” comedian Bill Maher quipped, on a 2024 episode of his show that went viral following Trump’s tariff threat.
Maher argued that Brazil — where Bolsonaro aped Trump’s attempts to undermine trust in elections — had much to teach the US. While Trump has retained his political rights and avoided criminal proceedings after the Jan. 6, 2021 riots, Bolsonaro has been declared ineligible for office and is now facing a prison sentence of 40+ years.
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