Alexandre de Moraes' impeachment is already a reality and Bolsonaro will have to appoint two ministers to the STF this year

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Clodoaldo Moreira dos Santos, a member of the Constitutional Studies Committee of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) and a member of the OAB Goiás board, states that the senator's legal basis for the request is nothing new and that the Senate has already looked into previous cases of this type, without taking any action. “Since 2015, the STF has taken on a greater role, which some call judicial activism. And this activism has been bothering the Legislative and Executive branches.”

That said, Clodoaldo claims to see inconsistency on the part of Minister Alexandre, since the appointment is at the discretion of the President of the Republic and the investigation is not an impediment, but not bad faith. “Law is not an exact science. Abuse only occurs if there is bad faith,” explains Clodoaldo, who also states that the decision may have followed moral criteria, as occurred in the attempts to appoint former President Lula (by Dilma) and Cristiane Brasil (by Temer), which were also blocked.

Paradigm shift and impeachment

According to Clodoaldo, there has been a paradigm shift in the application of the law in Brazil. There has been a shift from “civil law” to “common law”. While in the former the law is imperative, in the latter it is more interpretative. For the jurist, however, the STF is the guardian of the Constitution, not the extensive interpreter.