Senate rejects request to oust Supreme Court justice

Rodrigo Pacheco, head of the Brazilian Senate, dismissed the impeachment request file by President Jair Bolsonaro against Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

“There is a definitive list of hypotheses that may provide ground for the impeachment of a Supreme Court justice. In effct in Brazil is the principle of legality. The fact must be legally founded on a good cause. For a motion of this nature to move ahead, the fact must be brought in accordance with the federal law—in this case law 1079,” Pacheco argued.

According to the congress member, rejecting the request for the impeachment of Alexandre Moraes “is crucial for democracy and the separation of branches and the need that the independence of each one of the branches is ensured and that they coexist as harmoniously as possible.”

Good cause

A statement signed by the Office of the Senate's Attorney-General recommended the rejection of the request due to “manifest absence of previously defined wrongdoing and a good cause.” The document mentions that the request proposed by Jair Bolsonaro is based on criticism and reveals disagreement with Alexandre de Moraes’s decisions.

“The criticism on the court ruling may be considered legitimate, even desirable from the point of view of freedom of expression and the exercise of one’s rights and democracy. However, one can promptly come to the conclusion that it is not apt for starting the impeachment process of a court authority,” the statement reads.

Request

The impeachment request was officially received at the Senate on August 20. President Bolsonaro had announced on social media he would file an impeachment request against Alexandre de Moraes and the court’s chief justice, Luís Roberto Barroso.

“Justices Alexandre de Moraes and Luís Roberto Barroso, of the Supreme Court, have long crossed constitutional boundaries with deeds,” he wrote. However, in the request formally filed at the Senate, Moraes is the only one targeted.