Fachin Takes the Supreme Court Crisis Into His Own Hands
BRAZIL · SUPREME COURT
Key Facts
- —The suspension Chief Justice Edson Fachin suspended both André Mendonça’s order removing the federal police director-general and Flávio Dino’s order reinstating him.
- —The case Petição 16.704, decided on the afternoon of 9 September. Andrei Rodrigues stays in the job pending the full court.
- —The bigger move Fachin removed Alexandre de Moraes as rapporteur of Inquérito 4.781, the fake-news inquiry Moraes has controlled since 2019.
- —Where it went Not to another justice. The open investigative part returns to the court’s presidency.
- —The date An extraordinary plenary session on 15 September at 10am will decide whether federal police may pursue their line of inquiry into Moraes.
- —That file Petição 16.662, containing police reports on contacts between Moraes and Banco Master’s Daniel Vorcaro.
Three decisions in one evening. Two of them settled a fight between justices. The third opened one that has no obvious end.
Brazil’s chief justice intervened on Wednesday evening in a dispute that had two of his colleagues issuing contradictory orders about who runs the federal police. Then he did something considerably larger.
The Order That Cancelled Two Orders
Justice André Mendonça had ordered the removal of Andrei Rodrigues, the director-general of the Polícia Federal. Justice Flávio Dino had then ordered him reinstated. Both orders were live at the same time.
On the afternoon of 9 September, in Petição 16.704, Fachin suspended both. His reasoning, as reported across Brazilian outlets, is that the successive rulings had produced an irreconcilable conflict of positions inside the court, and that a president suspending the decisions of fellow justices is absolutely exceptional but was justified by the risk to institutional order.
Poder360 summarised the decision in a headline that has since been repeated widely: only the presidency of the court could have decided Andrei’s position. The Rio Times has not obtained the decision text itself and reports that formulation as press paraphrase rather than as a quotation.
Andrei Rodrigues remains in post. He was given 48 hours to submit information. The substantive question goes to the full court.
Moraes Loses the Inquiry
The second decision matters more. Inquérito 4.781, universally known in Brazil as the inquérito das fake news, has been under Alexandre de Moraes as rapporteur for years. It is the instrument through which much of the court’s conflict with the online right has been conducted.
Fachin removed him from it. The inquiry was not handed to another justice by the usual redistribution. Its still-open investigative portion returns to the presidency, which will forward material to police authorities and the prosecutor-general as needed.
Criminal actions already filed and with charges accepted stay under the determinations Moraes made. What moved is the part that is still an investigation rather than a case.
The practical effect is that the single most contested judicial instrument in Brazil has changed hands, and the hands it changed into belong to the court’s administrative head rather than to a rapporteur with a docket.
September 15
Fachin convened an extraordinary plenary session for 10am on Tuesday 15 September. Before it is Petição 16.662, which contains federal police material on the alleged relationship between Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, the Banco Master controller whose bank was liquidated in November 2025.
The question is best stated narrowly. The plenary is being asked whether the federal police may advance and formalise their line of inquiry into a sitting justice. That is not a decision to charge anyone, and it should not be reported as one.
It is also not a request from a party. Reporting in Brasília describes Fachin acting on his own initiative as president, under pressure from colleagues and from outside the court, after the run of conflicting orders raised the prospect of incompatible decisions within the Supremo itself.
How the Market Read It
A gathering of roughly 45 businesspeople, lawyers and academics met on Wednesday, convened by WhatsApp. Participants reportedly included Jackson Schneider, formerly of Anfavea, Josué Gomes da Silva of Coteminas, Natura founder Pedro Passos, and the jurists Miguel Reale Júnior and Oscar Vilhena.
Their collective assessment, as reported by Estadão, was that Fachin had regained control of the court. The Rio Times could not access the original Estadão article and reports this at second hand.
It is a notably relieved reading from a constituency that spent the first half of the week selling. Whether it survives 15 September is a different question.
The Two Files to Keep Apart
Petição 16.704 is the federal police leadership dispute. It concerns who runs the PF and which justice had the authority to decide that.
Petição 16.662 is the Moraes and Vorcaro material. It concerns whether a justice of the Supreme Federal Court can be investigated by the police force whose leadership was the subject of the other file.
They arrived on the same evening and they are being reported together. They are separate proceedings with separate stakes, and conflating them will make the next fortnight harder to follow than it needs to be.
More: Brazil news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Fachin actually decide?
He suspended both Mendonça’s removal of the federal police director-general and Dino’s reinstatement of him, removed Moraes as rapporteur of the fake-news inquiry, and set a plenary session for 15 September.
Who runs the federal police now?
Andrei Rodrigues remains director-general pending the full court’s decision.
What happens to the fake-news inquiry?
Its open investigative portion returns to the court’s presidency rather than to another rapporteur. Cases already charged remain under Moraes’s earlier determinations.
What will the plenary decide on 15 September?
Whether the federal police may advance their line of inquiry into Alexandre de Moraes over alleged contacts with Daniel Vorcaro. It is not a decision to charge him.
Which case numbers matter?
Petição 16.704 for the police leadership dispute and Petição 16.662 for the Moraes material.
Sources: Poder360, Migalhas, Metrópoles, Gazeta do Povo, CartaCapital, Jovem Pan, Exame.
This article was drafted with automated assistance and reviewed before publication. How we use AI · Report an error
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