> To run the investigation, Mr. Toffoli tapped Mr. Moraes, 53, an intense former federal justice minister and constitutional law professor who had joined the court in 2017.<p>> In his first action, Mr. Moraes ordered a Brazilian magazine, Crusoé, to remove an online article that showed links between Mr. Toffoli and a corruption investigation. Mr. Moraes called it “fake news.”<p>> Mr. Moraes later lifted the order after legal documents proved the article was accurate.<p>How is this not arbitrary, without any checks and balances and not corruption?
Democracy. Free speech. Rule of law.<p>You want all three of those things. If you're trampling on one or two of them to defend the third, you're not in a good place.<p>Is it necessary? I could see a place where it was necessary. I do not know enough to know if Brazil is at such a place. But I know that, when someone wants to trample on free speech and rule of law in order to defend democracy, it is probably more likely that the person proposing it is not actually a friend of democracy either.