The separation of powers among different branches of government is the greatest guarantor of liberty ever devised by the human mind. No single branch, or person, can amass too much power if checked by the others. But a formal separation of powers means nothing if one branch has the means to intimidate the others into surrendering their constitutional prerogatives. What is happening now in Brazil 🇧🇷underscores this point: a single Justice of the Supreme Court has usurped dictatorial power by threatening leaders of the other branches, or their families, with arrest, imprisonment, or other penalties.

This person has destroyed Brazil’s historically close relationship with the U.S. by, among other things, attempting to apply Brazilian law extraterritorially to silence individuals and companies on U.S. soil. And the situation is unprecedented and anomalous precisely because that person wears a judicial robe: whereas we can always negotiate with leaders of a country’s executive or legislative branches, there is no way to negotiate with a judge, who must maintain the pretense that all his actions are dictated by law.

So we find ourselves in a dead end where the usurper cloaks himself in the rule of law and the other branches insist that they are powerless to act. If anyone can think of a precedent in human history where a single unelected judge has seized control of his nation’s fate, please advise. We want to return to our historic friendship with the great nation of Brazil!