Lula nominates three magistrates for STJ minister vacancies

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) appointed this Friday (10) three magistrates to vacancies as ministers of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ). Lula’s nominees were approved by the Senate on October 25th. The STJ scheduled the inauguration of lawyer Daniela Teixeira and judges José Afrânio Vilela and Teodoro Silva Santos for November 22, at 5 pm. The nominations were published in an extra edition of the Official Gazette of the Union (DOU).

The appointment comes after the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), ordered an investigation into suspicions of favoritism in sending Daniela Teixeira’s name to become official in the Planalto. The Senate Advocacy investigated the reasons that led the Board of Directors of the House to send only Teixeira’s name to the Presidency of the Republic for publication, even with the approval of the three names in the same session on October 25th.

As a result, the lawyer’s appointment could have been published in the DOU before the other two approved ones, and this would have placed her ahead of them in the criteria of seniority in the court, used to define a series of functions within the Court. This Thursday (9), Pacheco sent the names to the Presidency of the Republic. Teixeira denied any irregularities in his appointment.

The new minister was an advisor to the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) and has a master’s degree in criminal law. Since 2005, Teodoro Silva Santos was a judge at the Court of Justice of Ceará (TJCE) and José Afrânio Vilela served as a judge at the Court of Justice of Minas Gerais (TJMG) since 2011.