Justice Luiz Fux was drawn by lot on Tuesday (22) as the new reporting justice at Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) for a case that seeks to force the Senate to release visitor entry and exit logs. The records requested include those of lawyer Viviane Barci de Moraes, the wife of Justice Alexandre de Moraes, and banker Daniel Vorcaro. The assignment came one day after Moraes recused himself from the case.
Moraes had been drawn as reporting justice on Friday (18) through the court's electronic case-distribution system. On Monday (21), according to G1, he wrote in an order that he could not proceed, citing the Code of Civil Procedure, which bars a judge from hearing a case in which a spouse is a party. The case went to the court's presidency for redistribution, and a new draw selected Fux.
The information request
The lawsuit was filed by Guilherme Kilter, a Curitiba city councilman running for the lower house of Congress, from the free-market party Novo. Using Brazil's freedom-of-information law, he asked the Senate for access logs covering Viviane, Vorcaro, José Ferreira da Silva (known as Frei Chico, brother of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva), Fábio Luís Lula da Silva (the president's son) and Antônio Carlos Camilo Antunes, known as Careca do INSS. Senate President Davi Alcolumbre denied the request, arguing the logs are personal data.
In the filing, Kilter calls the refusal illegal and says it has no basis in the access-to-information law or in Brazil's data-protection law, the LGPD.
"violating the citizen's clear and certain right of access to information"
The case reached the STF after a federal court in the state of Paraná declared itself without jurisdiction. Federal judge Thais Sampaio da Silva Machado held that only the Supreme Court can hear a mandado de segurança, a fast-track constitutional remedy, against an act by the Senate president, InfoMoney reported.
Fux's own name has appeared in the Federal Police inquiry into Vorcaro's Banco Master. Seized messages, reported in September, indicate the banker paid for a trip and a tribute to the justice in New York. As reporting justice, Fux will now review the request and decide whether the Senate can be compelled to hand over the entry and exit logs.