Senate returns to debate limits to monocratic STF decisions

The project by senator Oriovisto Guimarães (Podemos-PR) that sets limits to the performance and individual powers of ministers of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and other higher courts has returned to the scene. Last Wednesday (9), Senator Esperidião Amin (PP-SC) was designated as rapporteur for the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) 8/2021, authored by Guimarães, at the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ) of the Senate.

With that, after two years shelved, the PEC 8/2021 returned to be processed in this legislature, and Amin committed to present his assent later this month. The PEC proposes measures such as the definition of deadlines for requests to be seen in judicial proceedings and the requirement of an absolute majority of votes (6) of the members to suspend the effectiveness of laws and normative acts of wide scope, thus prohibiting unilateral and monocratic decisions , the subject of constant controversy.

In addition, PEC 8/2021 stipulates that, after the approval of precautionary requests in defense of constitutionality, the judgment on the merits must take place within four months. The content of the PEC is inspired by the PEC 82/2019, also authored by Oriovisto Guimarães, which was rejected in the Senate plenary in 2020. Guimarães recalls that his proposal was not accepted at the time, but underwent modifications in the CCJ as part of the process for improvement for possible approval.

“The STF has to learn to be a collegiate, to decide the 11. When a minister decides alone, he has an absurd power. A single Supreme Court minister can overturn a law that has passed the scrutiny of 513 deputies, 81 senators and the President of the Republic. This imbalance has to end,” he said.