Supreme Federal Court

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Supreme Federal Court
Supremo Tribunal Federal
Supreme Federal Court of Brazil.jpg
The Supreme Federal Court at the Praça dos Três Poderes
Established 1829
Country Brazil
Location Brasília
Composition method Presidential nomination with Senate confirmation
Authorized by Constitution of Brazil
Number of positions 11
Website Official website
President
Currently Ricardo Lewandowski
Since September 10, 2014

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. The Supreme Federal Court (Portuguese: Supremo Tribunal Federal, [suˈpɾẽmu tɾibuˈnaw fedeˈɾaw], abbreviated STF) is the supreme court (court of last resort) of Brazil, serving primarily as the Constitutional Court of the country. It is the highest court of law in Brazil for constitutional issues and its rulings cannot be appealed. On questions involving exclusively lower legislation, the highest court is, by rule, the Superior Court of Justice.

Alongside its appeal competence, mostly by the Extraordinary Appeal (Recurso Extraordinário), the Court has a small range of cases of original jurisdiction, including the power of judicial review, judging the constitutionality of laws passed by the National Congress, through a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (Ação Direta de Inconstitucionalidade, or ADIn).

The eleven judges of the court are called Ministers (Ministro), although having no similarity with the government body of ministers. They are appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. There is a mandatory retirement age of 75.

All judicial and administrative meetings of the Supreme Court have been broadcast live on television since 2002. The Court is open for the public to watch the meetings.

In May 2009 The Economist called the Supreme Federal Court "the most overburdened court in the world, thanks to a plethora of rights and privileges entrenched in the country's 1988 constitution (...) till recently the tribunal's decisions did not bind lower courts. The result was a court that is overstretched to the point of mutiny. The Supreme Court received 100,781 cases last year."[1]

History

The court was inaugurated during the colonial era in 1808, the year that the royal family of Portugal (the House of Braganza) arrived in Rio de Janeiro. It was originally called the House of Appeals of Brazil (Casa de Suplicação do Brasil).

The proclamation of the Brazilian Declaration of Independence and the adoption of the Imperial Constitution in 1824 preceded the establishment of the Supreme Court of Justice (Supremo Tribunal de Justiça) in 1829. With the first Constitution of the Republic, the current Court was established.

Although the constitutional norms that regulated the creation of the Court allowed Deodoro da Fonseca, Brazil's first president, to nominate an entirely new Court, the president chose to nominate as the first members of the Supreme Federal Court the ministers who were then serving as members of the predecessor imperial Court.

Two hundred members have served on the Court. The Constitution of 1891 decided that the Court would have 15 members. When Getúlio Vargas came into power, the number of members was reduced to 11. The number was changed to 16 in 1965, but returned to 11 in 1969 and has not changed since. Of all Presidents of Brazil, only one (Café Filho) never nominated a minister.

The Justice, by Alfredo Ceschiatti in the front of the Supreme Federal Court

President of the Court

The President and Vice-president of the Court are elected by their peers for a term of two years by secret ballot. The currently serving President is Ricardo Lewandowski.

Re-election for a consecutive term is not allowed. By tradition, the members of the Court always elect as president the most senior minister of the Court that has not yet served as President, to avoid politicization of the Court. Therefore, it is known beforehand that the next Presidents of the Court, after Ricardo Lewandowski, will be, in order, Carmen Lúcia and Dias Toffoli.

If all members currently sitting on the Court have already served as president, the rotation starts all over again; however, due to the existence of a compulsory retirement age, and the consequent appointment of new ministers to fill those vacancies, it is very rare for the cycle to be completed and restarted, and some ministers are forced to retire before their turn in the presidency arrives, as expected to happen with Teori Zavascki.

According to the same convention, the Court selects as vice-president for a certain term the minister who, according to that tradition, will be selected president in the succeeding term. Also by tradition, the elections of the president and vice-president are never unanimous, there being always one isolated minority vote in each election, as the ministers who are to be elected never cast their votes for themselves; such votes are cast either for the Dean of the Court – its most senior member – or for some other elder minister that the one to be elected admires and wants to pay homage to.

The Chief Justice is also the 4th in the Presidential Succession Line, when the President of Brazil becomes prevented to be in charge, being preceded by the Vice-President, the President of the Chamber of Deputies, and the President of the Federal Senate, as provided in Article 80 of the Brazilian Constitution.[2]

Current members

Name Birth Appointed by First day Mandatory retirement Alma mater
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Celso de Mello

November 1, 1945
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in Tatuí, São Paulo
José Sarney August 17, 1989
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November 1, 2020 University of São Paulo
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Marco Aurélio Mello

July 12, 1946
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in Rio de Janeiro
Fernando Collor de Mello June 13, 1990
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July 12, 2021 Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
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Gilmar Mendes

December 30, 1955
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in Diamantino, Mato Grosso
Fernando Henrique Cardoso June 20, 2002
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December 30, 2030 University of Brasília
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Ricardo Lewandowski

(President of the Court)

May 11, 1948
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in Rio de Janeiro
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva March 16, 2006
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May 11, 2023 Faculty of Law of São Bernardo do Campo
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Cármen Lúcia

(Vice-president of the Court)

April 19, 1954
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in Montes Claros, Minas Gerais
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva June 21, 2006
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April 19, 2029 Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais
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Dias Toffoli

November 15, 1967
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in Marília, São Paulo
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva October 23, 2009
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November 15, 2042 University of São Paulo
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Luiz Fux

April 26, 1953
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in Rio de Janeiro
Dilma Rousseff March 3, 2011
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April 26, 2028 Rio de Janeiro State University
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Rosa Weber

October 2, 1948
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in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul
Dilma Rousseff December 19, 2011
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October 2, 2023 Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
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Teori Zavascki

August 15, 1948
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in Faxinal dos Guedes, Santa Catarina
Dilma Rousseff November 29, 2012
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[3][4]

August 15, 2023 Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
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Luís Roberto Barroso

March 15, 1958
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in Vassouras, Rio de Janeiro
Dilma Rousseff June 26, 2013
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March 15, 2033 Rio de Janeiro State University
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Luiz Edson Fachin

February 8, 1958
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in Rondinha, Rio Grande do Sul
Dilma Rousseff June 16, 2015
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February 8, 2033 Federal University of Paraná

[5]

Gallery

See also

References

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  2. Brazilian Constitution (in Portuguese)
  3. STJ Webpage (in Portuguese). Retrieved November 9, 2012
  4. STF webpage (in Portuguese). Retrieved December 1st, 2012
  5. STF website (in Portuguese). Retrieved November 25, 2012.

External links

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