President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday (Sept. 15) came out in favor of fixed terms for the justices of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) and for new rules on how they are selected. He made the remarks in an interview with broadcaster Record, on the same day as the tensest session yet of the institutional crisis inside the court. Under the current rules, STF justices serve with no term limit and face mandatory retirement at age 75.
A profound reform
"I think we have to have a profound reform of the judiciary, in which we discuss the length of the term, the criteria for choosing the candidate and how the person can be chosen," Lula said, according to news site InfoMoney.
He also called for what he described as "ethical standards". No one in the judiciary, he argued, should seek to get rich in office, and relatives of justices should not practice law in cases before the court.
"One thing has to be clear: whoever is a justice or works in the judiciary cannot want to get rich. People cannot be in the judiciary while a son, a wife and a father practice law before the very Supreme Court. We need to create ethical standards," the president said.
According to InfoMoney, Lula's Workers' Party has pushed for a judiciary overhaul since the start of the year. Points raised by the party include limits on monocratic decisions, issued by a single justice, and a bigger role for civil society in the National Council of Justice (CNJ) and the National Council of the Prosecutor's Office (CNMP). The site also reports that Lula has not detailed what a possible reform would include, and that his focus on the issue aims to limit the damage the STF crisis does to his campaign in this year's presidential race.
The Moraes-Mendonça crisis
The interview aired on the day the full bench of the STF debated, for the first time, whether to open an investigation against one of its own members. The session examined a Federal Police report that identified 52 messages between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro, a central figure in the Banco Master scandal. The report was produced at the request of Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the inquiry. Moraes says the messages are far-fetched.
The session ended without a decision after Justice Flávio Dino asked for more time to study the case. When the session was suspended, the vote stood at 4 to 3 to analyze Moraes and Mendonça separately. Opening the session, court president Edson Fachin asked the justices to keep disagreements from turning into personal fights. "We do not judge people; we judge facts and questions of law. Disagreement is legitimate; personal confrontation is not," he said, according to news site g1.
The next move belongs to Fachin. He must decide whether to keep the Sept. 23 session on Mendonça's handling of the Master case or postpone it; justices aligned with Mendonça favor a postponement, according to g1. Dino has up to 90 days to return the case, a deadline that runs out in December, after the election. Until then, the bench cannot decide whether to open an investigation into Moraes.