The minister of the (Supreme Federal Court) criticized this Friday (22) the appeal by , which he called “fashion of the moment” and which is a flag of the president of the court, .
He also argued that there is a confusion between the defense of social rights and judicial activism. “Applying social rights is not being an activist. It is the fashionable debate, these superficialities, labeling, which simplify people’s lives, but in this case they simplify, obscuring the understanding of reality.”
According to Dino, the opinion circulates that defenders of equality rights deserve “the fires of hell”.
The judge, on the other hand, also raised suspicions about the dichotomy between judicial activism and self-restraint.
For Dino, judges who claim to be self-contained are liars, as it would be impossible to “exercise the act of judging without interpreting”. Likewise, judges who define themselves as activists are bad judges because they “play God.”
The minister has been defended by the president of the STF, Edson Fachin. He gave decisions that limited pensions and prohibited compulsory retirement as punishment for magistrates.
The minister also publicly defended reforms in the justice system. In an article, he states that procedural and administrative revisions are necessary to improve the speed and legitimacy of the Judiciary. The background is an unprecedented crisis in the image of the STF and Justice.
Dino’s statements were made at an event in the Paulo Freire room, at Tucarena, PUC-SP theater. Dino received the title of doctor for distinguished knowledge (also called honoris causa) on the initiative of the university’s law faculty.
According to the minister, to date, this was the first honor of this type he had received. He also recalled that it was the first honor granted by a university that was not from the North or Northeast.
“I emphasize that it is the title of a Catholic institution, which is perhaps the theoretical, legal framework that I have strongest within me”, said the minister, who stated that he is affiliated with Thomist law, a legal current that originates in the work of Saint Thomas Aquinas.
“The right I believe in is the right of Psalm 67. It is the right of orphans, widows, the abandoned and those who need freedom and social well-being”, he continued.
Dino defended the STF and said that the court exercises strong constitutionality control through the conscious choice of Congress, in the Constituent Assembly of 1987 and 1988.
“It’s not just a Brazilian option. Post-war Europe, Portugal, Spain, in the 70s, post-Francoism, post-Salazarism, all these constitutional experiences chose, in the face of distrust in politics, a ‘reserve soldier'”, he stated.
According to Dino, the title received will be another “shield” in the court’s defense.
“They say I’m one of the Avengers, and they also use a shield. So, I got one more for another task that seems fundamental to me, which is one in which, in a bold way, in a non-corporatist way, in a critical but emphatic way, I say that the STF is definitely not the enemy of the nation”, he joked.
