Alexandre de Moraes takes Zavascki's place in Brazil top court

Jurist Alexandre de Moraes was sworn in on Wednesday afternoon (Mar. 22) as Supreme Court (STF) justice. Moraes now occupies the chair of Teori Zavascki, who died in a plane crash in January. The court is once again made up of 11 members. The new justice is to remain in his new position up to 2043, when he is to turn 75, the deadline for mandatory retirement.

The ceremony was attended by President Michel Temer as well as the heads of the lower house, Rodrigo Maia, and the Senate, Eunício Oliveira, in addition to other authorities in the Brazilian Judiciary branch. As is the custom in the court, the new minister did not deliver a speech, but merely said his oath of office: “I promise to fulfill the duties of my position as a Federal Supreme Court justice well and faithfully, in compliance with the Constitution and the laws of the Republic.”

Moraes was appointed to the court by President Michel Temer and had his name approved last month by the Senate. The new minister should receive some 7 thousand cases upon inauguration.

Cases in Moraes's hands will include the decriminalization of possession, and the validity of court rulings on the supply of high-cost medicines in public hospitals. The cases had been suspended by Zavascki's requests for further deliberation, and are now to be submitted to the new justice.

Before taking the reins of the Justice Minister, also by invitation of the president, Alexandre de Moraes had served as Secretary for Public Security in São Paulo state under Governor Geraldo Alckmin, a position he occupied from January 2015 to May 2016.

The new minister published a number of books on constitutional law and is a professor at the University of São Paulo (USP) Largo de São Francisco Law School, from which he graduated in 1990 and became a PhD. In 2000. He was affiliated with the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) until he was appointed to become a member of the Supreme Court.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira