Winner of the 2025 in the education category, constitutional law professor Adilson José Moreira, 50, argues that the appointment of a black person to the (Supreme Federal Court) to fill the vacancy opened by his retirement would give new perspectives for the court’s decisions and would represent an opening to popular desires for “better levels of racial justice”.
The president (PT) who must nominate, the attorney general of the Union, a white man — the senator (-MG) and the minister of the TCU (Court of Auditors of the Union) Bruno Dantas.
“This ‘someone I trust’ argument is a choice for purely political purposes. The political calculation to please someone should also not be a criterion for choice. The issue of diversity definitely does,” says Moreira.
Doctor in anti-discrimination law from , he criticizes , defends the judgment on the coup plot and says that fundamental rights should apply to everyone, both white men from Faria Lima and black men from the outskirts.
In addition to the Jabuti-winning book (“Racial Literacy: A Proposal for the Reconstruction of Brazilian Democracy”), Moreira recently released “Why Do Human Beings Suffer?: A Psychological Theory of Fundamental Rights”. The work is described by Moreira as the best he has ever written.
“In college, I received the message that I should think like white, talk like white,” he says, saying he emphatically resists this pressure to conform. “I’ll continue to be me and I think that’s great.”
Should President Lula choose a black woman for the STF? If so, why is representativeness an important criterion?
I definitely believe so. A United States Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action at the University of Michigan Law School features an argument developed by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. For her, these courses form individuals who will decide the destiny of all people. It is very important that faculties are diverse, to recognize people’s experiences, the arguments for equality they bring and the demands they present before the courts.
We have made significant progress in recent years thanks to the work of black people who are part of the judiciary system. In particular, judgment with a racial perspective, which establishes guidelines for judges in cases involving black people and racial issues. There are a plurality of studies demonstrating that the judicial system does not provide due legal assistance to black people.
President Lula must choose a black woman or a black man, but a progressive one. A person who is involved in discussions about racial justice. He is free to nominate whoever he wants, but this “someone I trust” argument is a choice for purely political purposes. The political calculation to please someone should also not be a selection criterion. The issue of diversity, definitely, yes.
The STF’s decisions guide our understanding of equality, freedom and legitimacy criteria for state actions, as the STF determined in ADPF 635 [ADPF das Favelas]. So, the appointment of a black woman — a person who can present new perspectives from which a collegial decision can be made — means greater openness to certain popular desires, such as greater levels of racial justice.
Like mr. evaluate the conduct of the coup plot process in the STF and the defendants’ right to defense?
Fundamental rights exist to protect both the interests of the people responsible for money laundering, who work at Faria Lima and are, for the most part, white, heterosexual, upper-middle class men, and black people on the outskirts, represented as bandits and criminals simply because they live in a certain area. So, fundamental rights apply to everyone, including those who were part of the coup plot.
But we cannot forget that these people participated in processes whose objective was to eliminate the democratic rule of law and they also have citizenship duties and are obliged to respect the way in which public institutions operate. Fundamental rights cannot be used strategically. This is not democratic logic.
There was no violation of the right to the presumption of innocence. There was no production of illicit evidence, which is something that happens frequently in Brazil, especially in the case of black people on the outskirts. Procedural deadlines were respected, and Federal Police investigations were carried out appropriately. To avoid accusations of suspicion, perhaps another reporting minister could have been chosen.
Does compliance with court decisions legitimize high-mortality police operations, such as the one carried out in the Penha and Alemão complexes?
Every state action needs to be justified, because we live in a rule of law. Furthermore, we are talking about a police operation with the specific objective of combating organized crime. This is done through planning. For this fight to be effective, we need to have an understanding of the reasons why it [crime organizado] exists, of the people involved, of its financing.
Within an evidently electoral context, an extreme right-wing governor who immediately allies himself with others on the extreme right to defend a type of public security based on the physical elimination of people and does not seek to understand the cause of this social problem is not an appropriate form of state action.
This has been a recurring practice in peripheral areas mostly inhabited by black and poor people, who within the social imagination are represented as social enemies because they are all supposedly criminals.
Mr. cites electoral purpose. What does this reveal about the reasons and expected results of this operation?
I have absolutely no doubt that this was one of the main purposes. We saw right-wing politicians posting on social media with all those bodies and saying that that was the goal they wanted to achieve. In other words, social cleansing, the elimination of those people seen as undesirable.
It is a reduction of the public security problem out of a broader context, of how social disparities spread. Systematic forms of discrimination are the real causes.
Black and peripheral people are represented as naturally criminals, who can never perform any type of social function, who can never be competent social actors and who, therefore, can and should be eliminated.
When the Federal Police carried out the operation in Faria Lima, the mainstream press did not use the term bandit, and politicians did not applaud. These terms were not used, but they are criminal, aren’t they? If we are truly committed to combating trafficking, these actions need to start from the top.
Mr. won the 2025 Jabuti award in the education category with the book on racial literacy. What is the role of this concept in overcoming democratic crises in societies like ours?
Democracy, as it has a correlation with the idea of the Rule of Law, is an organized political regime with the specific function of promoting the protection of fundamental rights.
In Brazil, the reality is a society in which there were 400 years of enslavement of human beings, there were state policies with the specific objective of elimination and there were immigration policies to privilege one race over the other.
There are many disparities caused by the action of in its various manifestations. Therefore, only the recognition of all members of the political community as competent social actors allows us to engage politically with them to produce a social consensus on what the common good is. This is far from being recognized in Brazil.
My proposal is that we need racial literacy. It has a dimension of recognizing historical responsibility and the presence of racism, but it is also a means to prevent these processes of reproducing disparities from continuing. Racial literacy occurs through an education focused on democracy. It is not reduced to a discussion about what I can say in certain contexts or about cordiality towards black people.
Mr. He recently released another book developing what he called the psychological theory of fundamental rights. The title of the work raises this question and I would like you to answer this question. Answer: Why do human beings suffer?
In the Rule of Law, we have the presumption that state actors will always operate in accordance with the law. Based on this expectation, people plan their lives thinking that their rights will be respected. So, we understand that it is possible to carry out my plans through rights.
If you are systematically subjected to discriminatory practices, you will develop what authors call learned helplessness, that is, the perception that you have no control over basic aspects of your life. This feeling produces emotional stress, which leads to psychosocial illnesses.
When we look at all human societies, we observe that the people most vulnerable to violations of fundamental rights are also the most vulnerable to developing psychosocial illnesses. Anxiety, anguish, phobia, suicidal ideation, depression, some heart and gastric problems are psychosocial illnesses caused by exposure to discriminatory practices.
Human beings suffer because the absence of fundamental rights prevents them from acquiring or developing certain fundamental elements for psychological integrity.
To what extent does this psychological theory differ from other theories about fundamental rights?
Classical theories assume that violations of fundamental rights are undue restrictions on freedoms and benefits that should be open to everyone. So, they understand rights as spaces for action. This is not false, but the problem is that these theories are based on the assumption that human subjectivity basically has two dimensions: moral and rational.
But there is also the psychological dimension of this subjectivity. When people are faced with discriminatory practices, they are systematically suffering identity threats. A police officer who unjustly arrests a black person is not simply restricting the right of movement or simply violating the legal principle of the presumption of innocence. Identity threats, such as racism, do not just affect a black person. This generates a feeling of collective fragility.
X-RAY | Adilson José Moreira, 50
He has a doctorate from UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais), with time at Yale University, and teaching experience at Stanford University. He completed a second doctorate at Harvard University and is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Berkeley
