The nomination by the president (PT) for the open position in the (Supreme Federal Court) consolidates the tendency towards a more political profile of the court.
Even before the announcement, the list of candidates already indicated the change in the way Lula has made his choices for the court. In this term, the president appointed the STF ministers due to the proximity and personal trust he places in them, in addition to the alignment of principles.
With the departure of , who retired early in October, the most popular names did not include recognized jurists, renowned lawyers or figures with a long and strong legal career, such as judges or ministers of the (Superior Court of Justice).
In the last two vacancies filled, Lula chose two names he trusts: , who was his lawyer, and , who was a judge for 12 years before holding elected positions since 2007.
An interlocutor of the STF heard under reservation states that the assessment is that the era of jurists in the court has passed. Even though there are legal reasons in decisions, political repercussions are increasingly considered, with judgments becoming more political.
This is influenced by the setbacks that Lula and the PT had with previous choices, after the Lava Jato and Lava Jato trials, including the decisions that resulted in his imprisonment for 580 days – later annulled due to suspicion by the then head of the 13th Court of Curitiba, in the process.
These major processes were also added to the case of the 2022 coup plot and changes in the correlation of forces between the three Powers to further project the Supreme Court onto the political scene.
The head of the (Attorney General of the Union) became the favorite after consolidating himself as the government’s main legal reference, called upon by the president to give his opinion even on political issues.
Messias was the main name to take over the Supreme Court seat since Barroso announced his early retirement. The AGU minister, however, faced resistance from STF ministers, as well as from the senator (-MG) for the vacancy.
Favoritism also occurred due to the government’s role as interlocutor with evangelicals, a segment that mostly supports former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL). A faithful member of the Baptist Church, Messias is a deacon of a congregation in Brasília and includes biblical excerpts in speeches and social media posts. He was the only AGU to represent the president at the .
Messias is not affiliated with the PT, but he also built a career and gained trust through his work with members of the party, since he was a legal consultant for ministries. During the Dilma Rousseff government, it was .
Thus, his profile is considered a hybrid between law and politics, by jurists and members of the government.
Pacheco, former deputy and former president of the Senate, is a direct name from politics. In recent years, he has built a close relationship with most of the STF ministers — even though he made nods to Bolsonarism in the previous government.
Pacheco started attending the house of ministers when he became president of the House and blocked requests for impeachment from members of the court, which made him maintain good circulation in the Judiciary even after leaving the presidency of the House – the senator’s term runs until January 2027.
Lula wants him to run for the Government of Minas Gerais, but the tendency is for the Minas Gerais native to leave public life and return to working exclusively as a lawyer.
In his three terms, including Messias, Lula appointed 11 STF ministers. In the first two governments, the president used to listen to his then Minister of Justice, Márcio Thomaz Bastos, to define vacancies. Nelson Jobim (former Defense) and Tarso Genro (former Justice), in addition to (former Civil House), were also consulted. Now, the decision is no longer outsourced.
During his first season at Palácio do Planalto, between 2003 and 2011, of the first three names, the president only met with one of them before the definition: Carlos Ayres Britto. Lula did not personally meet Cezar Peluso or Joaquim Barbosa before the announcement.
In previous decades, despite political support, the relevance of candidates in the world of law seemed to be a major factor.
Even those who were not academics, like Rosa Weber, came from a tradition of respectability acquired in the legal world. Barroso was a prominent professor of constitutional law and became known for his academic and professional work in law.
One of the exceptions was Dias Toffoli, who had a career as a lawyer for unions, for Lula in electoral campaigns and for the party before being appointed AGU and, in 2009, chosen by the STF.
Miguel Godoy, lawyer and professor of constitutional law at UnB and UFPR, states that the choice of Messias, as well as that of others considered for the current vacancy, consolidates this perception.
“The most striking feature of this choice will be to consolidate a Federal Supreme Court with a predominantly political-legal profile, and not a legal-political one. In other words, a court composed of figures whose trajectory was built more in the arena of the Executive and Legislative branches than in the classic institutions of the Justice system, such as the judiciary, the Public Ministry, the Public Defender’s Office or private law”, he says.
In addition to the histories and styles of those listed, Godoy understands that this will have repercussions on the court’s performance following the new composition. “This tends to accentuate the STF’s vocation as a space for institutional articulation and political mediation, rather than as a forum for pure legal technicality. It is a shift that reinforces the court’s role as a leading political actor in Brazilian democracy”, he states.
