Brazil Supreme Court Reform Push Grows as 84 Amendments Await Congress
Brazil · Politics
Key Facts
- —What happened A CNN Brasil survey counts at least 84 proposed constitutional amendments to reshape the Supreme Court pending in Congress.
- —Why it matters The Banco Master scandal has put Justice Alexandre de Moraes, and the court’s wide powers, under political pressure.
- —The catch Most proposals are years old. The most advanced, curbing single-justice rulings, has cleared only the Senate.
- —The jet video Footage from 2025 shows Moraes and his wife leaving a jet; a Vorcaro-linked fund held a stake in its owner.
- —The case he drew Moraes was drawn by lot to handle a petition seeking Senate visitor logs for his wife, Vorcaro and others.
- —What Moraes says He denies any act in office benefiting Banco Master or Vorcaro, and he has not been charged.
A banking scandal has put one of Brazil’s most powerful judges under scrutiny. Lawmakers are dusting off dozens of plans to rein in the court, but the bar for changing the constitution is high.
Brazil Supreme Court reform is back on the agenda, with at least 84 proposed constitutional amendments pending in Congress. CNN Brasil published the count on Monday 21 September 2026, as a banking scandal draws in a powerful justice.
That justice is Alexandre de Moraes, best known abroad for overseeing the coup case against former president Jair Bolsonaro. The scandal centres on Banco Master, a lender the Central Bank shut down in November 2025.
Its controlling shareholder, Daniel Vorcaro, was detained by the Federal Police in a fraud investigation, Reuters reported at the time. Moraes denies doing anything in office to benefit the bank, and he has not been charged.
What the court is, and why one justice matters
The Supremo Tribunal Federal, or STF, is Brazil’s highest court and the final word on the constitution. Its 11 justices are named by the president, confirmed by the Senate and serve until retiring at 75.
Moraes joined the court in 2017 and became its vice-president in September 2025. Much of a Brazilian justice’s power comes from acting alone.
A single justice can grant urgent injunctions, known as monocratic decisions, that suspend a law until the full bench rules. Each case also has a rapporteur, or relator, who steers it and writes the lead vote.
What Brazil Supreme Court reform would change
CNN Brasil’s own survey found 64 proposals in the Chamber of Deputies and 20 in the Senate. Most predate the scandal, and the oldest still pending was filed in 2005.
The newest was filed on 2 September 2026 by Senator Zequinha Marinho of the Podemos party. It would bar former justices from elected office for five years.
Several proposals would replace service until 75 with fixed terms. Senator Plínio Valério’s PEC 16/2019 proposes eight years, while PEC 51/2023 proposes 15, the news site Metrópoles reported on 20 September 2026.
Others would change who picks the justices or who may ask the Senate to impeach one. Senator Cleitinho filed a 2025 proposal reinforcing citizens’ right to lodge such requests, CNN Brasil reported.
The most advanced is PEC 8/2021, which bars single justices from suspending laws or acts of the president and Congress. The Senate approved it on 22 November 2023 by 52 votes to 18 in both rounds.
The Chamber’s constitution and justice committee backed it on 9 October 2024, by 39 votes to 18. It still needs a special committee and two floor votes in the Chamber.
What an amendment needs to pass
A PEC, short for proposta de emenda à Constituição, needs three-fifths of each chamber in two rounds of voting. That means 308 of 513 deputies and 49 of 81 senators.
Once both chambers approve the same text, Congress promulgates it without the president’s signature, according to the Chamber of Deputies. The president therefore has no veto.
A case with his wife’s name in it
Moraes has been drawn by lot to handle a writ of mandamus, a fast-track petition against official acts. It was filed by Guilherme Kilter, a city councillor in Curitiba for the Novo party.
The writ seeks Senate entry logs for several visitors, including Moraes’s wife, the lawyer Viviane Barci de Moraes, and Vorcaro. The list also names Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, a son of President Lula.
The Senate had refused Kilter’s information requests on privacy grounds. A federal court in Paraná sent the case to the STF because it targets Senate president Davi Alcolumbre.
Moraes had not yet ruled, the business channel Times Brasil reported on 21 September 2026.
The jet video
On Sunday 20 September 2026, O Globo columnist Lauro Jardim published a video of Moraes and his wife. It shows the couple stepping off a business jet at Santos Dumont airport in Rio de Janeiro on 22 August 2025.
The Legacy 650 belongs to a company in which a fund linked to Vorcaro held a stake, the news site Poder360 reported. Its operator, the air-taxi firm Prime Aviation, had a minority Vorcaro stake through another fund.
On 31 March 2026, Folha de S.Paulo reported that the couple flew at least seven times in 2025 with Prime Aviation. It tied an eighth flight to a plane owned by a company in which Fabiano Zettel, Vorcaro’s brother-in-law, was a partner.
Moraes’s office answered that day with a written note, reported by the state agency Agência Brasil. It called the insinuations of the “fanciful” report “absolutely false” and went on:
“Minister Alexandre de Moraes never travelled on any Daniel Vorcaro plane, nor with him or Fabiano Zettel, whom he doesn’t even know.”
The financial news site Money Times says the new footage contradicts that denial. No one has said that Vorcaro or Zettel was on board.
The dispute turns on whether a jet owned and run by companies in which Vorcaro-linked funds held stakes counts as his plane.
His wife’s law firm says it hires air taxis from several companies on operational criteria, with no personal tie to aircraft owners. It says Vorcaro was never aboard, and that Barci de Moraes sometimes travelled with her husband.
Moraes’s office had not replied to Poder360 by the time of publication.
The court looks inward
Justices have discussed a screening, or triagem, of messages and reports that mention court members, O Globo columnist Bela Megale reported. The idea, raised with court president Edson Fachin, would split the material into administrative and criminal tracks.
No decision has been reported. The material also mentions several justices besides Moraes, according to the report.
The pressure stems from a Federal Police report on data from Vorcaro’s phone, including what police describe as exchanges with Moraes. According to Correio Braziliense, Vorcaro’s messages refer to a R$131 million (about US$25 million) contract with his wife’s firm.
Moraes disputes the material’s authenticity and context.
His defence says 47 of the 52 notes police analysed were not found in WhatsApp chats. It adds that no message he wrote indicates favouritism.
Figures here use the Central Bank rate of 5.16 to the US dollar for 18 September 2026.
On 15 September 2026, the full court met to weigh the police report and the prosecutor general’s request to annul it. Justice Flávio Dino asked for more time, and no decision was taken.
In a written defence filed on 14 September 2026, Moraes said he had never judged a case involving Banco Master or Vorcaro. He also said no act of his in office could be linked to any benefit for them.
What happens next
The court is due on 23 September 2026 to take up a related matter concerning Justice André Mendonça, O Tempo reported. Mendonça ordered the deeper police analysis of Vorcaro’s phone.
Moraes’s defence, reported by Congresso em Foco, says Mendonça acted irregularly. It says he ordered steps against a justice without a police request, the prosecutor general’s view or plenary approval.
For the amendments, the hurdle is arithmetic. Even the most advanced has waited nearly three years in the Chamber since clearing the Senate.
No court or authority has found wrongdoing by Moraes or his wife, and neither has been charged.
More: Brazil coverage, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Brazil’s Supreme Court?
The Supremo Tribunal Federal, or STF, is Brazil’s highest court and the final interpreter of the 1988 constitution. It has 11 justices, named by the president and confirmed by the Senate. They serve until mandatory retirement at 75. Individual justices can issue urgent rulings on their own, which gives each of them unusual power.
What would Brazil Supreme Court reform change?
It depends on the proposal. CNN Brasil counts at least 84 pending amendments, covering fixed terms for justices, new rules for choosing them, bans on former justices running for office and limits on single-justice rulings. The most advanced, PEC 8/2021, passed the Senate in November 2023 and awaits the Chamber of Deputies.
Did the jet video contradict what Moraes said?
On 31 March 2026 his office called a newspaper report “absolutely false”, saying he never travelled on any Daniel Vorcaro plane, nor with Vorcaro or his brother-in-law Fabiano Zettel. The video shows him leaving a jet owned by a company in which a Vorcaro-linked fund held a stake. Money Times says that contradicts the denial. No one has said Vorcaro or Zettel was on board, and his wife’s law firm says it hired the air-taxi operator on operational criteria.
Why is Moraes handling a case that mentions his wife?
The STF assigns cases by lottery, and Moraes was drawn to handle a petition seeking Senate visitor logs for several people, including his wife and Vorcaro. The petition concerns access to records, not her legal work. He had not ruled on it as of 21 September 2026.
Sources: CNN Brasil on the 84 amendment proposals, Conjur on the Senate vote on PEC 8/2021, Chamber of Deputies on the committee vote, Chamber of Deputies on how amendments pass, Metrópoles on term-limit proposals, Times Brasil on the Senate visitor-log petition, Revista Oeste on the draw, Poder360 on the jet’s ownership, CNN Brasil on the law firm’s statement, Gazeta do Povo on the video, Agência Brasil on the March denial, Money Times on the video, Brasil 247 on the O Globo screening report, Correio Braziliense on the contract and the plenary, O Tempo on the 15 September session, Congresso em Foco on Moraes’s defence, Reuters on the closure of Banco Master
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