One of the two nominated by former President Jair Bolsonaro to the Supreme Court (STF), Minister Nunes Marques has adopted a “moderate” stance within the court, sometimes trying to move away from positions defended by the former agent’s supporters and seeking to approach other magistrates. Whether interrupting judgments or decisive votes in cases considered sensitive, their movements have been pointed out by members of the Court as “difficult to predict”.
In the second class of the Supreme, the minister has been acting as a kind of counterpoint to his colleagues in the board. Nunes Marques often maintain a guarantee, legal current that preaches maximum respect to the prerogatives of defenses, opposing a wing considered more punitivist. In recent decisions, however, it has opted for “intermediate paths”, and made the nominee to different aspects of the Court.
The most recent episode occurred on April 4, when less than three hours to close the trial in the virtual plenary of an appeal by former Minister Antonio Palocci, Nunes Marques paralyzed the analysis with a request for view-which means more time to evaluate the case. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s former auxiliary asks to benefit from the same decision that annulled Marcelo Odebrecht’s actions.
In February, Dias Toffoli complied with Palocci’s annulment request. Now, the other ministers of the Second Class analyzed an appeal from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) against this decision.
The trial was interrupted when it was tied 2-2. In addition to Toffoli, Gilmar Mendes spoke out in favor of the annulment, while André Mendonça and Edson Fachin voted against. In practice, Nunes Marques will decide.
The suspension caused by the Palocci case generated discomfort among Supreme Ministers, since Nunes Marques has already voted in a similar case that was analyzed by the Second Class in September 2024.
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Tie
Court interlocutors remember that Nunes Marques was the tiebreaker vote in the trial that maintained the nullity of all acts against businessman Marcelo Odebrecht in the Lava-Jato.
In a middle ground position – in which he agreed with both Toffoli and the divergence opened by Fachin – the minister understood that impartiality was broken in the case, but that the nullity of procedural acts against the executive did not affect the validity of evidence.
People close to the minister state that the interruptions represent the stance of “weighting” of the magistrate, who had already had to break the score in rumor judgments at other times. In 2021, for example, it was up to him to decide in favor of Lula in the case where the petista asked to gain access to messages exchanged between former Judge Sergio Moro and Curitiba Lava-Jet prosecutors.
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In another recent case, however, Nunes Marques interrupted a virtually decided trial. In the action where the 11 ministers discuss whether licensed federal deputy Carla Zambelli (PL-SP) will be convicted or not for irregular gun and illegal embarrassment crimes, it was up to Nunes Marques to paralyze the analysis when the score was already 4-0. co-worker.
Condemned to ten years in prison in another case, related to the invasion of the Systems of the National Council of Justice (CNJ), the deputy is still defendant in the STF for, on the eve of the second round of 2022, having drawn a gun and pointed to a man in the middle of the street in a neighborhood of the noble area of Sao Paulo. She is currently in Italy and is considered a fugitive from Brazilian justice.
Nunes Marques’s moderate positions coincide with a closer approach to him with different STF wings. Example of this traffic was the June party held at home on June 11. Among those present was Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who went to the event hours after interrogating Bolsonaro, defendant in the criminal action that deals with a coup plot.
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In addition to Moraes, the party was attended by Minister Dias Toffoli and representatives of the other powers, such as parliamentarians and ministers of the Lula administration.
Nunes Marques has also given sinas of a good relationship with Lula. Earlier this month, the president chose for a place of Minister of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) Federal Judge Carlos Brandão, who was supported by Nunes Marques. The two are from Piauí.
Earlier, in 2024, the minister had already shown approximation with the Planalto when he entered another nominee, Judge João Carlos Mayer Soares, in the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region, where he acted before being nominated for the Supreme.
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One of the facilitators of the approach with Lula was former governor of Piauí and today Minister of Social Development, Wellington Dias (PT), whom Nunes Marques is a friend. Even allies of former President Bolsonaro admit reservedly that the STF minister is seen as an ally-but no longer as a vote totally aligned with the interests and guidelines defended by pockets.
