Deputy sues STF against PEC that allows Congress to review Court decisions

The Federal Supreme Court (STF) will have the opportunity to comment on the project that intends to give Congress the prerogative to review the court’s judgments. The ministers consider the change a form of undue and unconstitutional interference in the court’s jurisdiction. This is considered the most sensitive point of the so-called “Anti-STF Package”.

Deputy Paulinho da Força (Solidariedade-SP) called for the urgent suspension of the proposal’s processing. He states that the project is a “real and serious threat to the institutional configuration of the Democratic Rule of Law”.

“The processing of the matter comes at the price of violating the autonomy of the Judiciary, in its organizational and procedural dimensions”, says an excerpt from the request.

The project makes up the package of measures to change the functioning of the STF, approved this week by the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ) of the Chamber of Deputies. With the approval of the CCJ, the project may be analyzed by a special commission that has not yet been created.

Any change to the approval of decisions by STF ministers must be approved in the form of a constitutional amendment, which requires a qualified majority in the Chamber and the Senate, in addition to voting in two rounds. The text can also be subjected to constitutional control by the Supreme Court itself, which can declare the changes incompatible with the Constitution and, therefore, prevent them from coming into force.

The president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL) does not intend, for now, to speed up the processing of projects that limit the STF’s actions, according to interlocutors. Recently, Lira benefited from a decision by Minister Gilmar Mendes, dean of the court, which closed the investigation into robotics kits.

In a message to Congress, minister Luís Roberto Barroso, president of the STF, stated this Thursday, the 10th, that “institutions that are functioning” cannot be reformed due to “circumstantial political interests”.

The main changes in the ‘Anti-STF Package’:

Restriction of monocratic decisions: ministers will not be able to suspend, through individual injunctions, laws approved in Congress;
Review of judgments: STF decisions may be suspended with the approval of two thirds of the votes in the Senate (54 out of 81) and in the Chamber (342 out of 513);
New procedure for impeachment of STF ministers: the project establishes a deadline for analyzing requests for impeachment from magistrates, which does not exist today.