Home Pandemic lays bare constitutional power struggle in Brazil Pandemic lays bare constitutional power struggle in Brazil The Supreme Court has become a thorn in the side of President Jair Bolsonaro World Economy News 16 May 2021 • 4 min read It took just five days for Brazil’s supreme court to spring into action when the Jair Bolsonaro administration last month cancelled the census, citing the Covid-19 pandemic and budgetary constraints. Justice Marco Aurélio ordered the government to reverse course and conduct the constitutionally mandated decennial survey, which had already been postponed once last year. “It is up to the supreme court to impose the adoption of measures to make the demographic research feasible,” he said.