When judges become lawmakers: Brazil’s warning for America’s constitutional balance
By Michael Hancock | Commentary, Undercurrent Substack
Brazil Did Not Lose Its Democracy Overnight. It Allowed One Institution to Rise Above the Rest.
The greatest threats to constitutional government rarely arrive as revolutions. More often, they arrive as evolutions, unfolding quietly rather than all at once.
No tanks roll through the streets. No constitution is suspended. Elections continue. Congress still meets. Presidents still campaign. Courts remain open.
Everything appears normal.
Until one day it isn’t.
What changes is not the existence of democratic institutions but the balance among them. Liberty depends less upon the existence of government than upon the careful distribution of governmental power.
The Founders understood this better than mos...