Brazil Supreme Court Impeachment Push Now Has the Capital’s Lawyers Behind It
BRAZIL · INSTITUTIONS
Key Facts
- —The vote The Federal District bar’s full council approved the proposal in the early hours of Wednesday 9 September.
- —The targets Justices Alexandre de Moraes and Dias Toffoli, on what the council called indications of crimes of responsibility.
- —The route The proposal goes first to the national bar council, which alone would file it with the Senate.
- —The catch No justice of Brazil’s Supreme Court has ever been removed by impeachment.
- —The evidence base The move rests on police findings about dealings with banker Daniel Vorcaro of Banco Master.
- —The pressure Around 3,000 business bodies, led by Fiesp with CNI and CNC, demanded a public session on the crisis.
The bar association of Brazil’s capital voted before dawn on Wednesday to pursue impeachment of justices Alexandre de Moraes and Dias Toffoli. It cannot file the case itself.
A Brazil Supreme Court impeachment proposal cleared the full council of the Federal District bar association in the early hours of Wednesday. The targets are justices Alexandre de Moraes and Dias Toffoli.
The council approved sending the proposal to the national council of the Brazilian bar. That body, not the district section, would put it to the Federal Senate.
The stated grounds are indications of crimes of responsibility. The factual basis is federal police material on dealings with the banker Daniel Vorcaro.
Vorcaro is the former owner of Banco Master. Message exchanges involving him are what turned this from a rumour into a filing.
What the Bar Can and Cannot Do
The district section approved a position, not a case. The proposal now sits with the national council for a decision it may or may not take.
Even if the national council agrees, the bar does not remove anyone. It would be asking the Senate to open proceedings.
That is a longer road than the headline suggests. It is also not the only route in motion.
Impeachment requests against both justices were already filed at the Senate on 3 September by the activist Renan Santos. Anyone may file one.
How Impeachment of a Justice Works in Brazil
Under Article 52 of the Constitution, the Senate tries justices of the Supreme Federal Court for crimes of responsibility. The lower house has no role.
Conviction requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate. That is 54 of 81 senators.
The Senate president decides whether a request is even processed. Most never advance past that desk.
No justice of the Supreme Federal Court has been removed by impeachment. Requests are common and outcomes are not.
The Ethics Case Runs Alongside It
The same bar section opened an ethics and disciplinary procedure against the partners of the law firm Barci and Barci. It followed a federal police report from an operation named Compliance Zero.
The partners named are Viviane Barci de Moraes, the justice’s wife, and their children Giuliana and Alexandre Barci de Moraes. Ana Cláudia Consani de Moraes and Fernanda Ghiuro Valentini Fritoli complete the list.
Reporting describes the procedure as covering all of the firm’s partners from the outset. Descriptions of it as an existing case later widened to include the children are not supported by the coverage.
Possible sanctions run from fines and censure through suspension to exclusion from the bar. Exclusion would cancel a lawyer’s registration.
Business Has Now Joined In
On Tuesday a manifesto led by Fiesp, the São Paulo industry federation, was published by a group described as around 3,000 entities. It demands the court examine the crisis in a public plenary session.
G1 reported on Wednesday that the signatories include the national industry confederation CNI and the national commerce confederation CNC. Those are the two largest employer bodies in the country.
Business federations in Brazil intervene in judicial disputes rarely and deliberately. The signal is about predictability rather than about either justice.
The demand itself is procedural. They are asking for the matter to be heard in the open, not for a particular outcome.
Why This Is Landing Now
The court spent this week in an open dispute over the leadership of the federal police. One justice suspended the force’s director-general and another reinstated him a day later.
Wednesday’s plenary session was cancelled. A court that is not sitting cannot answer the demand for a public hearing.
Each institution that speaks makes it harder for the next one to stay quiet. That is how these sequences usually build.
What to Watch
The first marker is the national bar council. Without its endorsement the district vote is a statement rather than a step.
The second is the Senate president’s desk. Nothing reaches a vote unless a request is admitted for processing.
The third is arithmetic. Two-thirds of the Senate is a threshold Brazilian politics rarely reaches on a contested question.
The fourth is the ethics procedure. It is slower, and likelier to produce a formal finding than any Brazil Supreme Court impeachment attempt.
More: Brazil news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
Has a Brazilian Supreme Court justice ever been impeached?
No justice of the Supreme Federal Court has been removed from office by impeachment. Requests are filed regularly and almost never advance past the Senate president’s decision on whether to process them.
Who actually decides an impeachment of an STF justice?
The Federal Senate, under Article 52 of the Constitution, which tries justices for crimes of responsibility. Conviction requires a two-thirds vote, meaning 54 of 81 senators. The Chamber of Deputies has no role.
What is the OAB-DF?
The Federal District section of the Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil, the country’s bar association. Membership is compulsory for practising lawyers, which gives its councils standing but no power to remove a judge.
Sources: Correio Braziliense, G1, Poder360, Tribuna do Norte, Brasil 247, Valor Econômico, Constitution of Brazil Article 52, Rio Times.
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