In an article, lawyer Caio Rocha analyzes the crisis between the Supreme Court and the Senate, which is being addressed in today’s session of the Supreme Court

"In the supreme, each head is a sentence and the eleven together form an interrogation"

By Caio Rocha, lawyer.

Today the STF will write another chapter in the soap opera of the institutional crisis between Legislative and Judiciary, but it will hardly be the last. Early in the morning the STF Plenary will judge ADI 5,526, which discusses the possibility of application by the STF of restrictive measures of freedom and removal to parliamentarians, without being conditioned to the vote by the respective legislative House.

For the political class, and among analysts who praised the Senate’s postponement of the vote on the removal of Senator Aécio Neves, the expectation (or would it be the desire?) Prevails that the STF will review its understanding, to determine that the parliamentarian can only be arrested in flagrante delicto for unspeakable crime, as expressed in the Constitution. After all, the constitutional text – and nothing else – is what should guide the limit of the Supreme Court’s performance.

For those who follow the Supreme Court more closely, the expectation is that the possibility of applying precautionary measures is recognized, including the removal of the mandate and the “overnight retreat”. After all, the Constitution does not prohibit parliamentarians from being able to, for example, be defendants in eviction or labor claims, or even be able to divorce – however, no one questions that the same rules apply to ordinary people. When the constituent wanted to grant different treatment, he did so expressly.

For the STF ministers themselves, there is probably no expectation. They know that each head there is a sentence and the eleven together form a great question. In any case, the decision must be tightened, forming the already known blocks: on the one hand, Ministers Rosa Weber, Fux, Barroso and Fachin; and another Gilmar Mendes, Lewandowski, Toffoli and Alexandre de Moraes, occasionally accompanied by Min. Marco Aurélio. The decision will rest with Min. Celso de Mello and, probably, with the casting vote of President Carmen Lúcia.

In any case, the action postulates only that the precautionary measures, if applied, are conditioned to the appreciation by Parliament. It is likely that the STF will decide that it can apply restrictive precautionary measures and not only arrest in flagrante delicto, but that, in order to be effective, they are conditioned to voting by the respective House.

In the specific case of Senator Aécio, this would mean returning pressure to the Senate, which would have to decide between submitting to the social outcry, or making an unpopular decision, with the risk of being considered corporatist.
Caio Rocha is a lawyer, partner at Rocha, Marinho e Sales.

For more information visit: https: //www.focus.jor.br/data-venia/no-supremo-cada-cabeca-e-uma-sentenc …