The trial that will decide whether Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes should be investigated over his ties to Daniel Vorcaro, of Banco Master, has no date to return to the bench. According to an analysis by BBC News Brasil, the case may not resume until 2027, after the October elections and the inauguration of Brazil's next president in January. The session was halted on Tuesday (Sept. 15) when Justice Flávio Dino requested a review period, known in Brazilian legal jargon as a pedido de vista, shortly after a provisional 4 to 3 vote to try the cases of Moraes and Justice André Mendonça separately.
Under court rules, Dino has 90 days to release the case, a deadline that expires on December 15. Even then, the trial only returns if the court's president, Justice Edson Fachin, puts it back on the docket and schedules a new session. The court goes into recess from December 20 to February 1. BBC News Brasil reports that a quick resumption is considered unlikely behind the scenes. Justice Luiz Fux, voting in an unrelated case on Wednesday, complained about review requests. "Each time a review is requested, the same topic piles up in chambers, and sometimes the notes get lost, because the vote is reprinted and so on", he said, according to news site G1.
What the trial decides
The trial does not examine whether Moraes broke any law. It weighs whether the Federal Police report linking the justice to Vorcaro is valid and whether an investigation into their relationship should be opened. Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet challenged the document and argued that Mendonça could not have requested a Federal Police report against a fellow justice without prior authorization from the full court. Mendonça says he only asked the police to identify who received Vorcaro's messages and passed the case to his colleagues once Moraes was identified. Moraes countered with accusations that Mendonça acted illegally and with political bias in the Banco Master and INSS inquiries.
Who votes and what comes next
On Tuesday, voting was tied on a procedural motion filed by Justice Gilmar Mendes that called for a joint trial. Fachin accepted Dino's request and announced a 4 to 3 result for separate trials, leaving Dino's vote out; Dino did not object, according to BBC News Brasil. Newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported that Moraes, Gilmar Mendes and Cristiano Zanin voted to join the cases, while Mendonça, Fachin, Fux and Cármen Lúcia voted against. Because voting was not closed, justices can still change their votes when the session resumes, and Dino has yet to vote. Justices Kássio Nunes Marques and Dias Toffoli have declared themselves conflicted and will not take part.
It remains open whether Moraes and Mendonça may vote on the merits. For legal scholar Ivar Hartmann, who holds a PhD in public law from Uerj and was consulted by BBC News Brasil, both should be barred from voting in the rest of the trial. "Alexandre de Moraes would be barred from taking part in the trial because he is a party or directly interested in the outcome of that decision", professor Ana Laura Barbosa, of FGV Law School and Insper, told Folha.
A trial on the accusations against Mendonça remains scheduled for September 23, though BBC News Brasil found that Fachin is weighing a postponement after the uncertainty left by Tuesday's session. If Dino does not release the Moraes case by December 15, the resumption is likely to slip past the recess and the presidential inauguration, into 2027. When the full court returns to the case, the routine starts over: a report, a statement from the prosecutor general's office and oral arguments, followed by the votes, beginning with the rapporteur and then in reverse order of seniority, with Dino first.