“STF can ‘pull the ear’ of the Legislature”, says Temer

Former president Michel Temer (MDB) stated this Tuesday (14) that the Federal Supreme Court (STF) can ‘pull the ear’ of the Legislature, pointing out omissions by parliamentarians, but without “replacing the legislator”.

“The STF cannot replace the legislator. He can give the Legislature a ‘tang on the ear’, but pointing out an omission. It doesn’t seem to me that the Constitution gave the Judiciary a function beyond that which it is responsible for, which is to judge”, said Temer at the seminar ‘The Role of the Supreme Court in Democracies’, promoted by the Estadão and Mackenzie Presbyterian University.

According to the emedebista, the last word must always be from the Legislature. “The STF can decide, but the Legislature can come later and issue a constitutional amendment, saying that the system is as it is from today onwards. In this case, the Supreme Court’s decision is in force for a brief period and, when the new regulations come in, the decision loses its effectiveness. This is how you make the actions of the two Powers compatible”, he indicated.

Temer cited the discussion of the time frame as an example of the clashes between the Court and parliament, when the Supreme Court overturned the thesis that indigenous people had the right only to the lands they occupied on October 5, 1988, the date of promulgation of the Federal Constitution. He criticized what he called the ‘extraordinary disclosure of the dispute’, and highlighted that there is a ‘radicalization of positions in the country, without debate of ideas’.

“A climate is created in which, instead of having a legal discussion in the case of a Senate project, for example, there is a discussion of radicalization. This is not useful for the country. It has negative repercussions internally, and even more negatively externally,” he noted.

At the same event, jurist and professor Ives Gandra defended a deadline for the National Congress to issue a law when the STF considers that there is an omission by deputies and senators regarding constitutional requirements. “You would have to ask Congress to make the law. There are mechanisms to not allow the invasion of competences. The sovereign in a democracy is the people and this sovereignty can only be exercised by their delegates and their delegates are in the Legislative and Executive Branch” , said Gandra.