Brazil Courts: Flávio Bolsonaro Our Lady Aparecida Social Media Orders Conflict

• Social media posts linking Flávio Bolsonaro to removing Our Lady of Aparecida's title have led to a series of conflicting judicial rulings in Brazil.
• Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça initially ordered the removal of specific posts, which was later overturned by Justice Flávio Dino, only to be reinstated by Justice Luiz Fux.
• The dispute highlights the intense competition for religious voters ahead of Brazil's October 4 election, with Our Lady of Aparecida holding significant cultural and emotional importance across various faiths.
• Despite the controversy, there is no official record of Flávio Bolsonaro ever proposing to strip the patron saint of her title.

Lawyers advising political campaigns or social media platforms in Brazil should note the conflicting judicial interpretations regarding content removal during elections, highlighting the unpredictable legal landscape for online speech and potential for rapid reversals of court orders.

A contentious debate has emerged in Brazil surrounding social media posts that falsely associate Flávio Bolsonaro with intentions to revoke the title of Our Lady of Aparecida, the nation's revered patron saint. These posts have triggered a series of contradictory rulings from Brazil's highest courts, underscoring the intense competition for religious voters as the October 4 first-round election approaches. Our Lady of Aparecida, a dark-skinned depiction of the Virgin Mary, was designated Brazil's patron saint in 1930, and her feast day on October 12 became a national holiday in 1980.

The controversy escalated following a September 24 post by comedian Antonio Tabet on X, which featured an image of the saint with the caption: "The militia-linked family hates Black women so much that it decided to attack Our Lady of Aparecida." Bolsonaro's campaign swiftly challenged this post before the Superior Electoral Court, asserting that it disseminated false information. The campaign reported identifying over 2,000 related posts, collectively garnering more than 21 million views.

Acting as an electoral judge overseeing campaign advertising, Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça, who also serves on the electoral court, ordered the removal of Tabet's post the following day. Justice Mendonça subsequently extended this order to encompass other similar posts, affirming that such removal directives "do not constitute prior censorship." Concurrently, the Superior Electoral Court initiated online voting earlier in the week on orders to remove social media content suggesting Flávio Bolsonaro intended to strip the saint of her title, with voting scheduled to conclude at 11:59 p.m. Brazil time.

The initial removal orders were quickly challenged and overturned. Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino, who on the same Wednesday ordered the Federal Police to investigate attacks on religious images, granted Tabet's request on a subsequent Sunday, thereby reversing the content removal orders. Justice Dino noted that Tabet's post did not explicitly name Bolsonaro and questioned whether there was sufficient certainty to deem it unlawful, thus challenging the basis for its removal.

However, the legal back-and-forth continued. Bolsonaro's campaign then appealed to another Supreme Court Justice, Luiz Fux, who, late on a Monday, suspended Justice Dino's ruling and reinstated the electoral court's original removal orders. Justice Fux clarified that his decision pertained to the procedural path the case took to reach the Supreme Court, rather than a judgment on the lawfulness of the social media post itself. Both Justices Mendonça and Fux requested that the full Supreme Court review their respective rulings, though Chief Justice Edson Fachin opted to keep the case off the agenda for a recent Wednesday.

Wallace Corbo, a constitutional law professor at Rio de Janeiro State University, highlighted that while the electoral court possesses specialized jurisdiction, this does not preclude the Supreme Court from reviewing its decisions when constitutional questions are at stake. Lawyers advising political campaigns or social media platforms in Brazil should note the conflicting judicial interpretations regarding content removal during elections, highlighting the unpredictable legal landscape for online speech and potential for rapid reversals of court orders.

The dispute over Our Lady of Aparecida underscores her profound cultural and emotional significance in Brazil, extending far beyond practicing Catholics. João Ricardo Matta, a professor of strategy and market intelligence at Fundação Getulio Vargas, explained that many evangelicals, having grown up in Catholic families, retain an attachment to the saint. He emphasized that while Catholics and evangelicals do not constitute unified voting blocs, the extremely tight electoral margins mean that a shift of merely one or two percentage points among undecided Catholic voters could ultimately determine the election outcome.

This cultural resonance makes the saint a potent symbol in political discourse. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, speaking at a rally in Fortaleza on a Tuesday, publicly affirmed that Our Lady of Aparecida would remain Brazil's patron saint during his tenure, adding, "Anyone who doesn't like it should leave Brazil." This statement reflects the political weight of the issue, particularly as presidential campaigns vie for the support of religious communities.

Historical context further illuminates the sensitivity surrounding the saint's status. In 2007, a bill introduced by a lawmaker who later served in Jair Bolsonaro's government proposed reclassifying Our Lady of Aparecida from Brazil's patron saint to the patron saint of Brazilian Roman Catholics, though this bill was shelved by the lower house of Congress in 2008. While Flávio Bolsonaro stated in August that one of his first acts if elected would be to "decree that Brazil belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ," there is no official record of him ever proposing to strip Our Lady of Aparecida of her national title, a crucial fact amidst the ongoing social media controversy.

Lawyers advising political campaigns or social media platforms in Brazil should note the conflicting judicial interpretations regarding content removal during elections, highlighting the unpredictable legal landscape for online speech and potential for rapid reversals of court orders.

Source: Original reporting via Courthouse News