Lewandowski accepts Lula's invitation to be Minister of Justice

Ricardo Lewandowski, 75 years old, accepted this Wednesday (10 January 2024) the president's invitation Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to command the Ministry of Justice and Public Security. The announcement will be made official this Thursday (11 January).

The former minister of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) will occupy the vacancy left by Flavio Dino (PSB-MA), which was nominated by the PT member and approved by the Senate to form the Supreme Court.

On Monday (January 8, 2024), Lula and Lewandowski met at Palácio do Planalto, outside the president's agenda. A new meeting between the two took place on Wednesday night (January 10), this time at Palácio da Alvorada, with the participation of Dino. The meeting was also not officially recorded.

The decision was finally sealed at a 3rd meeting held on Wednesday night. The name of the future head of Justice had been speculated since the end of 2023, but it remained “mature” after the 1st meeting.

The inauguration of the new minister should take place starting next week. Dino will resign from his position by Friday (12 January). In this transition period, Lewandowski will end his private activities as a lawyer and must leave the Legal Council of the CNI (National Confederation of Industry).

Lewandowski should appoint as executive secretary, a position that is equivalent to a type of deputy, the lawyer and professor Manoel Carlos de Almeida Neto. He has already worked in the office of the former STF minister and also with the Dean of the Court, Minister Gilmar Mendes. He is also a law professor.

Currently, the position is occupied by Ricardo Cappelli, a name defended by Dino and the PSB to continue in the role. There is pressure from Lula's allies for him to remain in post, but he should not remain.

According to the Power360President Lula gave complete autonomy for the next Minister of Justice to choose his number 2. However, there is still no final destination for Capelli.

Imbroglio with the PSB

Publicly, the pessebistas say that the president is the one who should decide, together with Lewandowski, what the structure of the ministry should look like, but behind the scenes they admit that there is dissatisfaction with the possible loss of space on the Esplanada.

Others listed

Before deciding on Lewandowski, other names were mentioned. At first there was pressure for a woman, but Lula didn't give in. Here are other names mentioned by the government in recent months:

• Simone Tebet (MDB), Minister of Planning and Budget;
• Gleisi Hoffmann (PR), deputy and national president of PT;
• Jorge Messias, attorney general of the Union;
• Wadih Damous (PT), former deputy and national consumer secretary at the Ministry of Justice;
• Wellington César Lima e Silva, deputy head of Legal Affairs at Palácio do Planalto.

Despite being suggested by the media, the current executive secretary of Justice, Ricardo Cappelli, was not in Lula and Planalto's plans. The government kept Dino in office until he chose his successor.

History

Ricardo Lewandowski officially retired from the STF on April 11, 2023. He anticipated his departure by 1 month for reasons “academics and professionals”. The magistrate would retire compulsorily on May 11, when he turned 75.

Lewandowski announced the anticipation to journalists on March 30, the date on which he participated in his last trial in the physical plenary of the Court. On April 6, President Lula signed the decree granting the magistrate his retirement. Here's the complete (67 KB).

The minister was appointed by Lula during his first term as President of the Republic, in 2006, and took office at the Court on March 16 of that year, taking over the vacancy left by Carlos Velloso. He completed 17 years in office.

One of the most notable cases in his career at the Supreme Court was the impeachment trial of the then president Dilma Rousseff (PT) in 2016, led by the minister during his period as president of the STF and the CNJ (National Council of Justice), from 2014 to 2016.

Lewandowski presided, in the Senate, over the process that led to Dilma losing her mandate. He accepted the request of PT members and senator Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), then president of the House, to split the vote in the process, which allowed Dilma to maintain her political rights even though she had to leave office.

When the Supreme Court denied an appeal by the former president to annul the process that removed her from office, in 2020, Lewandowski did not participate in the trial. He declared himself unable to vote on the issue, since, having presided over the Court at the time of impeachment, he commanded the debates in the Senate.

In 2022, the minister also chaired a committee in the House to update the impeachment law.

As minister of the STF, in 2021, Lewandowski suspended the progress of two investigations against Lula that were being processed in the Federal Court of Brasília. The decision involved investigations into donations from the construction company Odebrecht to the Lula Institute, the purchase of land for the Institute's headquarters and the acquisition of an apartment in São Bernardo do Campo. The investigations began in the extinct Lava Jato operation.

With the suspension, investigations had to start over from the beginning. The then minister's decision came after the Supreme Court considered Curitiba incompetent to process and judge cases involving the PT member.

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Born in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Lewandowski built his academic and professional career, as a lawyer, in São Bernardo do Campo, the political birthplace of Lula and the PT. He graduated in political and social sciences from the School of Sociology and Politics of São Paulo (1971) and in legal and social sciences from the Faculty of Law of São Bernardo do Campo (1973). The city is in the metropolitan region of the capital of São Paulo.

Joined as a volunteer teacher at USP Law School (University of São Paulo) in 1978, where he obtained his master's and doctorate degrees in law. In 2003, he became a full professor of General Theory of the State at the same faculty, a position from which he also retired when he turned 75.

He worked as a lawyer from 1974 to 1990. He was Secretary of Government and Legal Affairs of São Bernardo do Campo under Aron Galante (at the time, at the PMDB), from 1984 to 1988.

Even without having been a judge, Lewandowski was appointed, in 1990, to the extinct Criminal Court of the State of São Paulo by the then governor Orestes Quércia (1987-1991), of the PMDB, in the vacancy reserved for lawyers. He was nominated by the OAB (Brazilian Bar Association).

In 1997, he was promoted to the São Paulo Court of Justice. He remained in the São Paulo Court until he was appointed by Lula to the STF.

His proximity to the PT member helped him reach the STF. The minister's mother was a friend of the PT member's then wife, Marisa Letícia (1950-2017). Both went to the same beauty salon in São Bernardo do Campo (SP).

He also held the Presidency of the Republic on an interim basis from September 15 to 17, 2014.

On January 1, 2024, Lewandowski took command of the TPR (Permanent Court of Review) of the Mercosur (Southern Common Market). The term of office is 1 year.

The future Minister of Justice joined the Court as a representative of Brazil on July 29, 2023.

The TPR is the jurisdictional body of Mercosur. Ensures the correct interpretation, application and compliance with the rules that govern the block. It began operating on August 13, 2004. The headquarters are in Asunción (Paraguay).

According to Clarita Maia, president of the International Relations Commission of the OAB-DF (Brazilian Bar Association of the Federal District), there is no law that prohibits the president of the Mercosur TPR from holding another position simultaneously. In other words, there is no legal impediment to holding the 2 positions, Minister of Justice and President of the Mercosur Court.

Legacy at the STF

While he was still at the STF, Lewandowski released a balance (PDF – 7 MB) with work numbers at the Court. Over the 17 years, there were 117,784 decisions made in the cabinet and 21,215 orders. Furthermore, 84% of the decisions were monocratic. The rest (16%), in collegiate (between the classes and the Court plenary).

During the presidency, there were a further 54,335 decisions and 5,934 orders. Now, his successor will inherit 807 processes that are still in Lewandowski's collection. Of these, 562 (70%) are in the final decision phase.

Among the most important cases reported by minister Ricardo Lewandowski is the one that prohibited the practice of nepotism in the public service, which led to the publication of the binding summary 13 (standardizes rules to be compulsorily followed by the entire Judiciary).

He was also rapporteur of the action in which the Supreme Court decided for the constitutionality of racial quotas in public universities, in 2012 (ADPF 186). The minister defined, in his vote, that affirmative action policies must be transitional, establishing periodic review of their results.

In 2018, he reported the habeas corpus collective by which the Court granted house arrest to pregnant women, breastfeeding women and mothers of children up to 12 years old or people with disabilities (HC 143,641).

In 2007, the Court ruled unconstitutional a Federal District decree that prohibited public demonstrations in Praça dos Três Poderes, Esplanada dos Ministérios and Praça do Buriti, in guaranteeing freedom of demonstration, through an action reported by Lewandowski (ADI 1969).

The judge reported 14 actions regarding the Executive's actions in combating the pandemic. Among them, the one that defined immunization against the disease as compulsory (obligatory), with the use of physical force or constraint on citizens being restricted (ADI 6,586).

As president of the CNJ, he was one of the main people responsible for implementing custody hearings in the 27 states. Based on them, the judge must define the immediate fate of the person arrested in the act, presented within 24 hours.