The (Federal Supreme Court) returns to work on Monday (3) after reinforcing, in 2024, the role of political actor in the cases he judges and a discourse of institutional defense that has made the plenary demonstrate internal alignment.
At least in cases of great political and media repercussions, the Court has been striving to display a collegiate performance, unlike the times of “11 islands”, a metaphor used by the then minister.
This Monday, the Supreme Court holds the solemn opening session of the judicial year, and the sessions in the plenary will be resumed on Wednesday (5).
Until September, it will preside over the work, when it will be replaced by the current vice president ,. Neither is pointed out as a good political articulator.
Ancient disaffected, Barroso and the dean of the court, Gilmar Mendes, now have a closer relationship. They frequent dinners together and, more than that, Gilmar assists Barroso in the political articulation.
The Court has been demanded and if placed at the Center for Political Issues, such as the analysis of the coup plot against the possession of Lula (PT) after the election of 2022 or in the relationship between Planalto Palace and through the discussion of parliamentary amendments.
In addition to being triggered, ministers also perform spontaneously as political actors, such as Gilmar and Dias Toffoli, among others, who participated in meetings off the agenda with authorities of other powers.
The virtual plenary has been a tool used to demonstrate union. In judging the former president’s request to take from the coup plot cases in December, in a few hours most were formed, although they have a week to include votes in the remote environment.
And they were the only ones to vote on the last day, and only the second defended the impediment of Moraes. The two, appointed by the former president, have different postures in relation to the integration in the Court.
Kassio has a more pragmatic and open dialogue profile with other magistrates. So far, Mendonça is regarded by court members as the most “ideological”, even if it means some isolation in court.
It is today the farther away from the others, even though he and Kassio have, in full or partly, disagreed with Moraes decisions dealing with topics related to former president’s supporters, such as the January 8, 2023 attacks.
Other unit demonstrations occurred in September, in Moraes’ decision to suspend social network X (formerly) in the country, and after the government’s determination to create tools to prevent the use of social benefits resources in Bets in November.
Advisors evaluate that the change in court composition in recent years has impacted at the turn of profile. Ministers today are seen as more political and less technical. This means that they are more inclined to negotiations to achieve a more expressive majority or compose with colleagues.
In the plenary and behind the scenes, the ministers have relationships, according to the court advisers, more cordial than in the past.
Six years ago, Barroso and starred in one.
“The Lord is the mixture of evil with the delay and hints of psychopathy,” said Barroso, who heard, as a replica, that he should “close his law firm.”
Gilmar also starred in 2009, when he told his colleague that he was supposed to modulate his tone because he was not talking to “one of his henchmen from Mato Grosso.”
Such confrontations have not been repeated. The beginning of this turn is the arrival of Bolsonaro to the Planalto Palace in 2019 and the outbreak of the former president’s attacks, especially from 2020.
In the previous period, the clashes, veiled or not, were routine in cases resulting from Operation Lava Jato, for example.
The opening of the fake news inquiry by the then president in 2019, uncommonly, without the request of the Public Prosecution Service and without submitted the draw to define the rapporteur, also served as an object around which the collegiate joined. Five years later, follows.
COVID-19 pandemic was also a point of inflection. Given the government’s negative attitude regarding the containment measures, vaccination and the propaganda of medicines without scientific proof, opposition parties and governors resorted to the STF to circumvent social, economic and sanitary emergency.
Recently, the case that debated the structure of Criminal Justice in São Paulo, by the Criminal Execution Departments (Decrim) and Inquiry (DIPO), it seemed that it would be an exception to mobilize a more heated debate.
In August, the case was resumed in the physical plenary after being started at the virtual, but interrupted at the request of Moraes. At the time, the ministers discussed details of the subject and possible relationship of the matter with the judge of guarantees. Without consensus, André Mendonça asked for the postponement.
In the resumption, however, on November 7, the dispute was resolved in a matter of minutes. Barroso cited debates made in the coffee before entering the plenary, when the magistrates reached a consensus.
It was not the only time. Sometimes the president indicates that the ministers discussed the processes on the agenda to oil the understandings, and, even with disagreements, do not raise their spirits in the plenary.
