Brazil's top court, the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), resumes on Friday (11) its review of changes Congress approved to the Clean Record law, the statute that bars candidates convicted of certain crimes from running for office. The vote of Justice Gilmar Mendes reopens case ADI 7881, stalled since May, when he asked for time to study the file. The outcome may decide the campaigns of candidates whose registrations have been denied or challenged in electoral courts, including José Roberto Arruda, who is running for governor of the Federal District, and Anthony Garotinho, a candidate for governor of Rio de Janeiro state.
The score stands at 2 to 0 for striking down parts of Complementary Law 219/2025. The rapporteur, Justice Cármen Lúcia, and Justice Luiz Fux have voted that the changes violate the Constitution. According to G1, Globo's news portal, eight votes remain, and they can be cast in the court's electronic system until September 18. The case returned to the virtual plenary after the 90-day deadline for returning files requested for review, set by Internal Rule Amendment 58/22, as reported by Migalhas, a legal news outlet. The rapporteur argued for restoring the previous rules.
The lawsuit was filed by the Rede Sustentabilidade party. It challenges the starting points used to count the eight years of ineligibility set by Law 64/90, Brazil's ineligibility statute. In May, Cármen Lúcia proposed striking down the changes to clauses b, c, e, k and l of article 1, as well as the 12-year cap on combined ineligibility periods from administrative improbity convictions.
"The changes made by Complementary Law 219/2025 concern the starting points and the counting of the ineligibility period and establish a scenario of patent setback to what had been set up as an instrument guaranteeing republican principles, administrative probity and public morality," the justice wrote.
What the 2025 law changed
Congress passed the changes and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed Complementary Law 219/2025 into force, with line-item vetoes, in September of last year. The central change shortened punishment periods. A lawmaker removed from office for breaking congressional ethics rules used to be barred from running for the remainder of the term plus eight years; now the eight years count from the ruling that strips the mandate. Anyone who resigns to escape removal is ineligible for the eight years after the resignation, with no added remainder of the term.
For people convicted in court, the general rule became eight years counted from the conviction. Under the previous legislation, the period generally ran until eight years after the sentence was served. The exception was kept for crimes against public administration, money laundering, drug trafficking, racism, torture and criminal organizations: in those cases, ineligibility lasts until eight years after the sentence is served. The law also set a 12-year cap when ineligibility for improbity is combined with a later conviction.
Campaigns on hold
Inside the court, according to G1, there is expectation that Gilmar Mendes will diverge from the rapporteur and open a line of votes upholding at least part of the changes, such as the new counting method. Gilmar is a longtime critic of the Clean Record law. G1 also reports that nothing prevents a new request for review, if any justice asks for more time.
The immediate effect runs through the electoral courts. The Federal District's regional electoral court rejected Arruda's candidacy registration by 5 to 0 on September 3. The electoral prosecutor pointed to seven administrative improbity convictions tied to the Pandora's Box corruption investigation, six of them published less than eight years ago. The presiding judge, Guilherme Pupe, considered the new Clean Record rules but rejected applying the new calculation retroactively, according to Migalhas. Garotinho is fighting a similar eligibility fight in Rio de Janeiro.
The eight remaining votes can be cast in the STF system until September 18. Arruda's lawyers can appeal to the Superior Electoral Court, and he remains authorized to campaign while there is no final ruling on his registration.