Who are the current STF ministers – 11/27/2023 – Power

President Lula (PT) nominated this Monday (27) the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino (PSB), for a vacancy in the STF (Supreme Federal Court).

The decision was taken after an unprecedented delay by Lula in nominating the names, leaving the positions vacant for more than 50 days.

Dino had been considered a favorite for the position since October, when Rosa Weber retired from the Supreme Court. Since then, the STF has worked with ten ministers, awaiting the appointment of the new member.

The president’s nominee for the STF will still be examined and his name will be evaluated by the Senate.

The Federal Constitution prescribes that nominees must be citizens of “remarkable legal knowledge and unblemished reputation”; in addition, they must be at least 35 years old and, at the time of appointment, less than 70. Members of the STF remain in office until they are 75 years old.

Meet the current members of the court:

Gilmar Mendes

Current dean of the court, Gilmar Mendes was born in Diamantino (MT) and, in 1978, graduated in law from the University of Brasília (UnB), where he also completed a master’s degree in law and State in 1987. He studied another master’s degree and a doctorate at the University of Münster, in Germany, becoming a doctor in 1990. He teaches both at UnB and at IDP (Instituto Brasiliense de Direito Público); of this second institution, he is also a founding member.

He was a public prosecutor from 1985 to 1988, working with the TRF (Federal Regional Court) of the 1st Region, based in Brasília. He was a legal consultant to the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic between 1991 and 1992 during the government of Fernando Collor.

From 1995 and 1996, Gilmar was a technical advisor at Nelson Jobim’s Ministry of Justice, during the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Still during the FHC administration, he was Deputy Chief for Legal Affairs of the Civil House (1996 to 2000) and Attorney General of the Union (2000 to 2002).

In the Supreme Court, he entered the vacancy previously occupied by Néri da Silveira. He is the only minister appointed by FHC still active in the STF. He presided over this court from 2008 to 2010 and the TSE twice, in 2006 and from 2016 to 2018.

Carmen Lucia

Appointed by Dilma Rousseff to the Supreme Court in 2006, Cármen Lúcia was the second woman to occupy a seat on the STF, after Ellen Gracie. A native of Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, she graduated in law from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (PUC-MG) and received a master’s degree in constitutional law from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG).

She was a prosecutor at the Public Ministry of the same state from 1983 until her appointment to the Supreme Court. At MP-MG, she reached the position of state attorney general, which she held in 2001 and 2002.

She presided over the STF from 2016 to 2018. Before that, she had been the first woman president of the TSE, in 2012 and 2013. She is the only woman in the current composition of the Supreme Court.

Toffoli Days

Lula’s eighth appointment to the STF, Dias Toffoli was born in Marília (SP) and graduated in law from USP in 1990. In addition to having a lawyer, the minister’s previous activity includes positions in the federal administration.

Toffoli was deputy chief for legal affairs of the Civil House of the Presidency of the Republic from 2003 to 2005, and attorney general of the Union from 2007 to 2009. He was also an advisor to the PT leadership in the Chamber of Deputies from 1995 to 2000, and a lawyer for the Lula in the 1998, 2002 and 2006 elections, which earned him criticism at the time of his nomination to the Supreme Court due to his proximity to the party.

The minister has also taught classes at the Brasília Unified Education Center (UNICEUB) and at the Judiciary School of the Federal District Magistrates Association.

He presided over the STF from 2018 to 2020 and the TSE from 2014 to 2016.

Luiz Fux

Born in the capital of Rio de Janeiro, Luiz Fux graduated in 1976 from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (Uerj), where he also became a doctor in civil procedural law.

He worked as a lawyer and, in 1979, became a public prosecutor for the State of Rio de Janeiro. His longest experience, however, was at the Court of Justice of that state, which he joined in 1982, and was promoted to judge in 1997.

His appointment to the STF took place in 2011, by President Dilma Rousseff, when Fux was about to complete a decade as minister of the STJ (Superior Court of Justice). He entered the country’s highest court in the vacancy left by the retirement of minister Eros Grau.

He was president of the TSE in 2018 and of the STF from 2020 to 2022.

He is a professor of civil procedure at Uerj; He has already taught the same subject at Emerj (School of Judiciary of the State of Rio de Janeiro).

Luís Roberto Barroso

Current president of the STF, Luís Roberto Barroso arrived at the court after being nominated by Dilma Rousseff, in 2013. Born in Vassouras (RJ), Barroso graduated from Uerj in 1980, the same institution where he completed his doctorate, completed in 2008, and where he teaches today. He has a master’s degree from Yale Law School, in the United States.

Before being appointed to the highest court, he was a prosecutor for the state of Rio de Janeiro since 1985. He also served as legal advisor to the Department of Justice of that state during the government of Leonel Brizola (PDT).

He practiced law, acting in important cases in the STF, such as the action on the legitimacy of research with embryonic stem cells and the one that equated same-sex unions with conventional stable unions.

Already a minister of the Supreme Court, he took on the role of rapporteur for the monthly allowance after Joaquim Barbosa decided to step away from that role in 2014.

The minister presided over the TSE from 2020 to 2022.

Edson Fachin

Current vice-president of the Supreme Court, Edson Fachin was nominated to the STF by then president Dilma Rousseff (PT) in 2015, to replace minister Joaquim Barbosa.

Fachin was born in Rondinha (RS) and graduated in law in 1980 from the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), where he was a full professor of civil law until his appointment to the STF. He completed a master’s degree and doctorate in Social Relations Law at PUC-SP (Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo).

He worked as a lawyer, with special expertise in private law consultancy and arbitration; from 1990 to 2006, he was prosecutor for the State of Paraná.

He collaborated in the Senate during the drafting of the new Civil Code; the theme, before, was already part of his academic production.

Alexandre de Moraes

Alexandre Moraes was nominated to the STF by Michel Temer (MDB) in 2017, when he was Minister of Justice; At court, he replaced Teori Zavascki, who died in January of that year in a plane crash.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from the Faculty of Law at USP, where he completed a doctorate in State law and works as a professor. He was a prosecutor at the Public Ministry of São Paulo from 1991 to 2002. This year, he left the Public Prosecutor’s Office to join the government of Geraldo Alckmin (then in the PSDB) as Secretary of Justice and the Defense of Citizenship for the state of São Paulo.

His political functions would continue when, in 2007, he joined the municipal management of the capital of São Paulo under Gilberto Kassab (at the time in the DEM), first as municipal secretary of Transport, then also in the chair of Services (both until 2010). Due to his accumulation of positions, he came to be known as Kassab’s “super secretary”.

He returned to state management, this time as Secretary of Public Security, in 2015, during Alckmin’s second government. He left the secretariat the following year, when he was appointed Temer’s Minister of Justice.

The minister was already affiliated with the DEM (currently União Brasil), the MDB and the PSDB.

André Mendonça

André Mendonça was nominated to the Supreme Court in 2021 by then-president Jair Bolsonaro. Mendonça, who filled the vacancy left by Marco Aurélio Mello, had served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Union in the government at the time.

The minister has a postgraduate degree in law from UnB (University of Brasília) and served as pastor at the Esperança Presbyterian Church, in the federal capital. He has a doctorate in rule of law and global governance and a master’s degree in anti-corruption strategies and integrity policies from the University of Salamanca in Spain.

Mendonça was a public lawyer at Petrobras from 1997 to 2000. Upon leaving that post, he joined the AGU (Attorney General of the Union). During the Bolsonaro government, he was attorney general twice; His role as Minister of Justice took place between periods at AGU.

In the ministry, he replaced former judge Sergio Moro, who had resigned after accusing then-president Bolsonaro of interfering in the Federal Police. Mendonça was appointed to the STF after the then president announced that he was looking for a “terribly evangelical” minister for the court.

Kassio Nunes Marques

Kassio Nunes Marques was, in 2020, the first nomination by then president Jair Bolsonaro to the STF. Born in Teresina (PI), Nunes Marques was then a judge at the TRF (Federal Regional Court) of the 1st Region, based in Brasília.

With a bachelor’s degree in law from the Federal University of Piauí (UFPI) in 1994, Kassio completed an Iberian postgraduate degree: he has a master’s degree since 2015 from the Autonomous University of Lisbon and a doctorate since 2020 from the University of Salamanca, in Spain. His postgraduate studies were questioned during the hearing in the Senate, due to the supposed incompatibility of dates between his doctorate and the two postdoctoral studies he claims to have completed.

He worked as a lawyer and, in 2008, became a judge at the TRE (Regional Electoral Court) of Piauí. In 2011, he was appointed judge at TRF-1, a court of which he became vice-president from 2018 to 2020.

Before his appointment to the Supreme Court, Nunes Marques was a candidate for a vacancy at the STJ (Superior Court of Justice). Self-declared brown, he is the only non-white minister in the current composition of the STF.

Cristiano Zanin

Cristiano Zanin was born in Piracicaba (SP) in 1975 and graduated in law from PUC-SP. He was a partner at Zanin Martins Advogados, which is now run by his wife, Valeska Teixeira Zanin Martins.

He became known for defending Lula in the Lava Jato operation. In addition, Zanin advocated in cases involving business groups, such as the bankruptcy of Transbrasil and the judicial recovery of Varig and Americanas. He also defended the governor of Alagoas, Paulo Dantas (MDB), managing to reverse his removal. In his career as a lawyer, Zanin gave oral arguments at both the STF and the STJ.

He was appointed by Lula in 2023 for the vacancy opened by Ricardo Lewandowski’s retirement.