Brazil Supreme Court Judges Now Give Opposite Orders on the Same Police Chief
BRAZIL · INSTITUTIONS
Key Facts
- —The reversal A Brazil Supreme Court justice suspended a colleague’s order on 9 September and reinstated the federal police director-general.
- —The removal Justice André Mendonça had removed him and the force’s intelligence chief the previous day.
- —The vote Three of five justices on the court’s Second Panel voted to uphold that removal.
- —The catch One of the three votes upholding the removal was cast by the justice who ordered it.
- —The trigger Mendonça says he was covertly monitored in August through at least six concealed police intelligence reports.
- —The referee Court president Edson Fachin has given Mendonça 72 hours to answer the government’s challenge.
Andrei Rodrigues was removed as head of Brazil’s federal police on Tuesday and reinstated on Wednesday. Neither order came from the full court.
Brazil Supreme Court justice Flávio Dino ordered the country’s federal police director-general back into his job on Wednesday. A colleague had removed him the day before.
Andrei Augusto Passos Rodrigues runs the Polícia Federal, the force that investigates federal crimes. Leandro Almada da Costa runs its intelligence directorate.
Both were suspended on Tuesday 8 September by Justice André Mendonça. Both were reinstated on Wednesday 9 September by Justice Dino.
Two single-justice orders on the same officials now point in opposite directions. Neither came from the full court.
What Each Order Actually Did
Mendonça acted in Petition 16.662, a case assigned to him. He suspended the two officers as a precautionary measure.
His order went further than the personnel move. It opened criminal and disciplinary proceedings in the force’s internal affairs office.
It also suspended the production and sharing of police intelligence reports covering judges, government lawyers and federal police officers. That clause is the centre of the dispute.
Dino acted in Petition 16.669, on an application filed by Rodrigues himself. He suspended the effects of Mendonça’s order and restored both men to their posts.
He also shielded them from further precautionary measures arising from their compliance with court orders. Dino then submitted his own decision to the full court.
Mendonça’s Case
His order was not a personnel judgement in the ordinary sense. He says he was the subject of covert surveillance.
Agência Brasil reported his finding that he was monitored through at least six concealed intelligence reports during August. Solicitor-general Jorge Messias was described as monitored in the same way.
Reporting on the underlying documents says Mendonça had signalled an intention to remove the police director. The stated reason was what he considered inappropriate closeness to President Lula.
The Vote That Makes This Unusual
The Second Panel opened an extraordinary virtual session on Tuesday morning to review Mendonça’s order. Three of its five members voted to uphold it.
Those three were Mendonça himself, Nunes Marques and Luiz Fux. Dias Toffoli had not voted.
Gilmar Mendes then requested vista, a procedural pause that suspends a judgment while a justice studies the file. He has up to ninety days.
The result was therefore never proclaimed. A vista freezes the proceeding but leaves the order under review in force.
Fux, who presides over the panel, cancelled its in-person session that day. The review itself continued in the virtual plenary.
Dino lifted Mendonça’s order the following morning. One justice acting alone displaced a panel in which a majority had leaned the other way.
Dino’s Reasoning
Part of his argument is about competence. He held that the matter belongs to the full court, and that neither Mendonça nor the Second Panel could order the removals.
He also argued the substance, attacking what he called the paralysis of police work. The suspended intelligence reporting, he said, damaged investigations under his own supervision.
Individual grievances, he wrote, cannot justify decisions that halt investigations and policing. He cited a meeting between Mendonça and the banker Daniel Vorcaro.
He put the conflict-of-interest question directly, asking whether a party can be judge in its own cause. On a narrower point he ruled that Partido Novo, which sought the measures, had no standing.
Why the Police Were Reporting on a Justice
The origin is a set of police intelligence reports sent to Justice Alexandre de Moraes in early September. Their contents turned an internal dispute into a public one.
Reporting on 4 September quoted the police describing an investigative act aimed at named individuals. It was produced, in the force’s words, without specific authorisation.
The same passage said the act ran through a court that lacked jurisdiction over two of those named. Moraes is one of the people the reports concern.
A further document flagged what it called asymmetry in Mendonça’s handling of cases. The measure was timing, with rulings ranging from nine to seventy-five days, and variation in evidentiary thresholds.
It characterised Senate president Davi Alcolumbre as a probable strategic target. The police attached a caveat that the files carry no evidentiary value and may not be cited as proof.
Moraes sent the material to court president Edson Fachin for whatever measures he considered appropriate. Outlets differ on whether that amounted to a formal request to investigate Mendonça.
Three Channels Are Already Running
This is not a stalemate waiting for someone to act. Fachin opened his own case, Petition 16.704, on 3 September.
That order gave Moraes, Mendonça, prosecutor-general Paulo Gonet and the federal police five days to explain themselves. It predates both of this week’s removals.
The solicitor-general’s office petitioned Fachin on 8 September to suspend Mendonça’s order. Its argument is that appointing and dismissing the police director is a presidential prerogative alone.
Fachin gave Mendonça 72 hours to respond to that petition. He also cancelled Wednesday afternoon’s plenary session as the dispute widened.
What to Watch
The first marker is Fachin’s 72-hour clock and what he does when it expires. He now holds the government’s challenge, his own inquiry and Dino’s referral.
The second is Gilmar Mendes. His vista can run for ninety days, and returning the file sooner would put the Second Panel back in play.
The third is administrative. Two valid-looking orders point in opposite directions, and the force follows whichever its lawyers judge to be operative.
For readers outside Brazil, the mechanism matters as much as the personalities. A Brazil Supreme Court is being asked to rule on the conduct of its own members.
More: Brazil news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who runs Brazil’s federal police right now?
Andrei Augusto Passos Rodrigues, reinstated as director-general on 9 September 2026 by Justice Flávio Dino, whose order suspended a suspension issued the previous day by Justice André Mendonça.
Can one Supreme Court justice overturn another?
Single-justice orders are routine in Brazil and are meant to be reviewed by a panel or the full court. What is unusual here is that a panel majority had already leaned toward upholding the order Dino suspended, and that the author of that order was one of the votes.
What is a vista request?
A procedural pause. A justice asks for the file in order to study it, which suspends the judgment for up to ninety days. The order under review stays in force during that time, and the result is not proclaimed.
Sources: G1, O Globo, Poder360, Migalhas, Conjur, JOTA, Agência Brasil, Jornal do Brasil, Brasil 247, Folha Vitória, Congresso em Foco, Exame, Rio Times.
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