Supreme Federal Court

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

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 Café Filho and Carlos Luz (acting) never nominated a minister.

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

On 8 January 2023, the building was attacked by supporters of the former president, Jair Bolsonaro.[1]

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 ADI). There are also other mechanisms for reaching the Court directly, such as the Declaratory Action of Constitutionality (Ação Declaratória de Constitucionalidade, or ADC) and the Direct Action of Unconstitutionality by Omission (Ação Direta de Inconstitucionalidade por Omissão or ADO).

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."[2]

Overruling seems to be frequent in SFC jurisprudence: "three years ago when the STF adopted the understanding that defendants who have a conviction upheld by a single appellate court may be sent to jail to begin serving their sentences. (...) The 2016 decision happened largely due to a change in opinion from Minister Gilmar Mendes (...). He had voted against sending defendants to jail after a single failed appeal in 2009, but changed his mind in 2016. Jump to 2019, and the circumstances – both political and judicial – have changed".[3]

The President and Vice President of the Supreme Federal Court are elected by their peers for a two-year term by secret ballot. The incumbent president is Minister Luís Roberto Barroso.[4]

Re-election for a consecutive term is not allowed. By tradition, the most senior minister who has not yet served in the presidential role is elected as the president by the court members, to avoid politicisation of the court.

If all currently sitting members have already served in the presidential role, the rotation starts all over again. However, due to vacancies caused by the compulsory retirement age and subsequent appointment of new ministers, it is very rare for the cycle to be ever completed. Some ministers are forced to retire before their turn for the presidency arrives, as was expected to happen with Teori Zavascki.

According to the same convention, the minister who is next in the line of succession for the presidency will serve as the vice-president for the time being. 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 line of succession, when the President of the Republic 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.[5]

The eleven judges of the court are called Ministers (Ministros), although having no similarity with the government body of ministers. They are appointed by the President and approved by the Federal Senate. There is no term length but a mandatory retirement age of 75.[6]

  Former president of the Court.     President of the Court.     Vice-President of the Court.

Order of antiquity	Minister[M]	Born (date and state)	Appointed by	Age at inauguration	Initial date (inauguration)	Limit date (retirement)	Main previous functions
1	Gilmar Ferreira Mendes	30 December 1955 in Mato Grosso	Cardoso	46	20 June 2002	30 December 2030	Prosecutor of the Republic (1985–1988), deputy chief for Legal Issues of the Chief of Staff (1996–2000), Attorney General of the Union (2000–2002)
2	Cármen Lúcia Antunes Rocha	19 April 1954 in Minas Gerais	Lula	52	21 June 2006	19 April 2029	Attorney of the State of Minas Gerais (1983–2006)
3	José Antonio Dias Toffoli	15 November 1967 in São Paulo	Lula	41	23 October 2009	15 November 2042	Lawyer (1991–2009), deputy chief for Legal Issues of the Chief of Staff (2003–2005), Attorney General of the Union (2007–2009)
4	Luiz Fux	26 April 1953 in Rio de Janeiro	Rousseff	57	3 March 2011	26 April 2028	Prosecutor of Public Prosecutor's Office of Rio de Janeiro (1979–1982), judge of the state of Rio de Janeiro (1983–1997), desembargador of the Justice Court of the state of Rio de Janeiro (1997–2001), minister of STJ (2001–2011)
5	Luís Roberto Barroso	11 March 1958 in Rio de Janeiro	Rousseff	55	26 June 2013	11 March 2033	Lawyer (1981–2013), Attorney of the State of Rio de Janeiro (1985–2013)
6	Luiz Edson Fachin	8 February 1958 in Rio Grande do Sul	Rousseff	57	16 June 2015	8 February 2033	Lawyer (1980–2015), Attorney of the State of Paraná (1990–2006)
7	Alexandre de Moraes	13 December 1968 in São Paulo	Temer	48	22 March 2017	13 December 2043	Prosecutor of the Public Prosecutor's Office of the state of São Paulo (1991–2002), lawyer of public law (2010–2014), minister of Justice and Public Security (2016–2017)
8	Kássio Nunes Marques	16 May 1972 in Piauí	Bolsonaro	48	5 November 2020	16 May 2047	Desembargador of the Regional Federal Court of the 1st Region (2011–2020)
9	André Luiz de Almeida Mendonça	27 December 1972 in São Paulo	Bolsonaro	48	16 December 2021	27 December 2047	Attorney General of the Union (2019–2021), Minister of Justice and Public Security (2020)
10	Cristiano Zanin Martins	15 November 1975 in São Paulo	Lula	47	3 August 2023	15 November 2050	Lawyer (2000–2023)
11	Vacant	—	Lula	—	—	—	—

Notes

• M. ^{^} Names in bold are the names used in social denomination.[7]

• 
  Ministers of the Supreme Federal Court in 2006
• 
  The Supreme Federal Court in session
• 
  The courtroom of the Supreme Federal Court
• 
  Supreme Federal Court at night
• 
  The Supreme Court lit up in pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month on October 29, 2020

• Brazil federal courts
• List of ministers of the Supreme Federal Court (Brazil)
• Tribunal de Justiça

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Supremo Tribunal Federal.

• Official website
• Photo 360° of Supreme Federal Court – GUIABSB (in Portuguese)