Appointed by the president () to fill a vacancy in the (Supreme Federal Court), the attorney general of the Union, , can repeat the tighter votes on appointments to the court in , of and .
Messias’ hearing at the CCJ (Constitution and Justice Commission) is scheduled for December 10th. After approval in the hearing, the candidate must also be approved in the Senate plenary, with at least 41 votes from the 81 senators. Never since redemocratization has a name nominated by the Presidency of the Republic been rejected by the House.
Since the 2000s, 20 names have been approved by the Senate. Those who had the worst performance were André Mendonça, approved in 2021 after the nomination of former president Jair Mendonça (PL), and Flávio Dino, appointed by Lula in 2023.
Both received 47 votes in favor, just 6 more than the minimum necessary. The nomination of Mendonça, former attorney general of the Union and former Minister of Justice under Bolsonaro, who said he wanted to nominate a candidate “” to occupy the Supreme Court.
Between the nomination and the vote in the Senate, it took almost five months, due to the then president of the CCJ and now president of the House, Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP), putting the nomination in the drawer.
In 2023, Dino achieved the same number of votes in favor, with one less vote against than Mendonça. Resistance also came from the opposition, which criticized the political career of the then licensed senator and Minister of Justice in the Lula government.
Now, the tension between congressmen and Planalto is due to the appointment of Messias instead of senator Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), an ally of Alcolumbre, in the vacancy left by .
In this case, the hearing date, scheduled for less than , is seen as an action that gives a tight deadline for the candidate and allies to campaign, .
For Álvaro Jorge, professor at FGV Direito Rio, the lack of a minimum period between the president’s appointment and the hearing is one of the aspects that could be reviewed in the current process of choosing ministers.
He also argues that the President of the Republic needs to support his nomination, with a formal justification delivered to the Senate and an announcement on national television. “It is important for the president, in a republican and motivated way, to go on television and explain to the country why he is nominating the minister”, says the expert. With Messias, this will be Lula’s 11th appointment to the court.
The model adopted by Brazil in choosing ministers is inspired by the United States, explains the expert. He points out that, since redemocratization, the Senate has always approved the name of Planalto.
In the entire history of Brazil, disapproval only happened to one president, . According to Álvaro Jorge, the constitution at the time had different rules than the current one.
Although it mentioned that the candidate needed to have notable knowledge, it was not clear that it needed to be in the legal field. With this, Floriano Peixoto nominated people who were not in the field of law. .
For the expert, the process of choosing Supreme Court ministers began to gain more relevance from 1988 onwards, with the current Constitution and, especially, from the 2000s onwards, “when the Supreme Court began to play a more decisive role in society”.
From the beginning of the millennium until now, Luiz Fux was the one who received the most favorable votes from the Senate: 68, in 2011. In second place comes the first woman to compose the Supreme Court, Ellen Gracie. , she had 67 votes in favor and none against. In third comes Joaquim Barbosa, the first black person to make up the court, with 66 votes in favor.
