The national council of the OAB, Brazil's bar association, joined by its 27 state chapters, on Wednesday (16) published a note expressing "total disapproval" of a remark by Flávio Dino, a justice of the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), that "there is no sale of a ruling without a lawyer buying it." He made the comment on Tuesday (15), during a session in which the court weighed whether to open an investigation into Justice Alexandre de Moraes over messages exchanged with Daniel Vorcaro, former controller of Banco Master.

According to Poder360, Dino added: "There is no passive corruption without active corruption." The remark came as the justices debated the transfer of the case's rapporteurship from André Mendonça's office to the court presidency under Edson Fachin. Dino argued that allowing chief justices to pull cases away from their rapporteurs opens room for distortions in the judiciary. As reported by ND Mais, he also said the country is living through "the most corrupt moment in the history of the judiciary in Brazil's history."

The bar association's note

In the note, the OAB says the statement "casts a generic and undue suspicion" over the legal profession and argues that any misconduct must be investigated and punished individually. "No generalization is fair or correct, especially when it reaches the overwhelming majority of Brazilian lawyers," the text reads. The association notes that it enforces a code of ethics and can sanction its members, up to expulsion.

"The Brazilian legal profession cannot be held collectively responsible for individual conduct," the note states, closing with: "The OAB does not accept the criminalization of the legal profession. The institution demands respect for Brazil's lawyers."

A standing ovation in Santa Catarina

The reaction reached the Tribunal de Justiça de Santa Catarina, the top appeals court of the southern state. The closing of its special chamber session on Wednesday was marked by a collective demonstration by the state's appeals judges against the generalizations voiced at the STF. According to ND Mais, the judges said such statements strike at the honor, independence and dedication of thousands of judges and court workers, and they ended the session with a round of applause for the state's bench. The court's acting president, Justice André Luiz Dacol, standing in for Rubens Schulz until October 2, read the act aloud in the chamber.

"In an act of firmness and rectitude, the justices expressed their vehement indignation against the generalizations that, like shadows, try to obscure the true face of the Brazilian judiciary."

The STF session where Dino spoke ended without a decision. According to CNN Brasil, he asked for vista, a request for review that pauses deliberation, suspending analysis of a procedural question raised by Gilmar Mendes on whether to join the cases. At the interruption, the vote stood at 4 to 3 to keep the cases separate, with Fachin, André Mendonça, Luiz Fux and Cármen Lúcia on that side, and Gilmar, Cristiano Zanin and Moraes favoring a joint review. Dino argued that the Moraes and Mendonça cases should be heard together in a session on September 23.