If the appointment of the Union’s attorney general, as minister of the (Supreme Federal Court), is confirmed and approved, the court would once again have three members in its composition at the same time, something that last occurred 36 years ago.
of the president (PT) for the vacancy opened with the departure of the minister, Messias is a native of Recife and would join the ministers, and.
In the second half of the 1980s, during the administration of , for just over three years, the court had four ministers from the Northeast. From January to March 1989, however, two of them retired: and , both from Paraíba.
In 1990, it was Carlos Madeira’s turn to leave the court. Born in Maranhão, he had been appointed by Sarney himself and retired shortly after taking office as President. As a result, only Aldir Passarinho, from Piauí, remained at the court, among the ministers from the Northeast — who would retire a year later.
Since that time, in just over 30 years of the redemocratization period, the court has had in its different compositions at most one minister born in the Northeast, in addition to a gap of eight years without any.
In 1991, Collor filled Passarinho’s vacancy with Ilmar Galvão, from Bahia, who was replaced, in turn, by , appointed by Lula in 2003.
After the magistrate’s retirement at the end of 2012, the court only had a minister from the Northeast again at the end of 2020, with the appointment of Kassio by the then president (). This number would increase just over three years later, with the arrival of , on Lula’s recommendation.
If Messias’ nomination and approval by , the Southeast would continue as the region with the majority of members, with a total of six magistrates —, , , , Luiz Fux and . The South and Central-West, with and , respectively, would remain with one representative each, while the North region would continue without having any magistrate in the Supreme Court.
This absence of the North in the court has continued since 2009, when Menezes Direito, who served on the court for less than two years, died. Born in Pará, he was the only minister born in the region among those nominated since 1985.
In general, the current composition is in line with what has been the pattern of appointments since redemocratization. Of the 31 ministers appointed in the period, 18 were born in the Southeast. Next, the South region appears, with six magistrates, the Northeast, with five and, finally, the Central-West and North, with one minister each.
Considering the entire history of the court, the Supreme Court (Acre, Amapá, Mato Grosso do Sul, Rondônia, Roraima and Tocantins), in addition to the Federal District.
Samuel Vida, professor of law at UFBA (Federal University of Bahia) and doctor in law, State and Constitution from UnB (University of Brasília), highlights the importance of regional diversity in the composition of the court, especially in a country with a continental dimension like Brazil.
“There is a cultural tradition that infiltrates the institutional sphere that I call southeasterncentrism. And this tradition naturalizes an excessive preponderance of representations from the Southeast and South of Brazil in relation to the other regions”, he says. “An effort is needed to ensure that institutions are able to more broadly represent the country’s constituent diversity.”
Still, he assesses that other aspects overlap with the regional issue, given the court’s lack of diversity in other aspects, such as gender and race.
Despite recurring pressure from civil society for the court to have a black woman on its staff for the first time, Lula appointed two men during his third term and is on his way to appointing a third. Considering all the indications made by the PT member in all his administrations, among ten names, there was .
Fernando Fontainha, who is a professor of sociology of law at Iesp (Institute of Social and Political Studies) at Uerj and one of the organizers of the book “Os Donos do Direito: A Biografia Coletiva dos Ministers do STF (1988-2013)”, sees the question of the origin of the ministers as a less significant factor when the presidents decide to nominate them.
He says that, although the issue of regional diversity is sometimes mobilized to “make a minister”, this would not be the logic of the Supreme Court’s action, as is the case with Parliament, and living in and frequenting Brasília appears to be central in the dynamics of appointments to the court.
“Probably, this is the most significant territorial data to understand how a Supreme Court minister becomes, much more than the place of birth”, he says.
According to the mapping presented in the book, of the ministers who served on the court from 1988 to 2013, two thirds of them already lived in Brasília when they were appointed to the STF. Of the 10 who did not live in Brasília, 7 were in Southeastern capitals at the time of appointment.
Born in Recife, Pernambuco, where he also completed his law degree, Jorge Messias spent part of his childhood and youth in Teresina, Piauí. His master’s and doctorate, on the other hand, were carried out in Brasília. He was, as attorney general of the Union in the Lula 3 government.
