We feel the need to comment on the widespread reporting in Brazilian news media regarding Justice Alexandre de Moraes’s most recent confrontational orders.

According to reports in the Brazilian press, on his own authority, Moraes ordered X to delete posts criticizing a Brazilian politician and gave X an unreasonable deadline of only two hours to comply, subject to a daily fine of 100,000 real ($18,000 USD). X complied in good faith by withholding the posts in Brazil the same day.

In response, Moraes fined X not 100,000 real, as his original order had provided, but 700,000 real ($126,000 USD). In his new order, Moraes claimed for the first time that he was fining X 100,000 real per offending post on the X platform, contradicting his own prior order that provided for a total fine of 100,000 real.

X has complied with Brazilian law by withholding the posts in question in Brazil and paying the 100,000 real fine, pending an appeal to the full Supreme Court. Moraes’ attempt to increase the fine to 700,000 real ex post facto and in contradiction with his own prior order represents a clear denial of due process and should be overturned on appeal.