Nominees of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) assume positions of ministers of the Court this Tuesday
the judges Messod Azulay Neto59 years old, and Paulo Sergio Domingues, 56 years old, took office as Ministers of the STJ (Superior Court of Justice) this Tuesday (6.Dec.2022). They were appointed by the president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to occupy the vacancies of former ministers Napoleão Nunes Maia Filho and Nefi Cordeiro, respectively.
Bolsonaro appointed the new ministers on August 1st and, after approval by the Federal Senate, published the nominations on November 24th (here’s the full of the decrees – 63 KB). Before being questioned, Azulay and Domingues went around the senators’ offices and introduced themselves.
At the CCJ (Constitution and Justice Commission) meeting of the Casa Alta, on November 22, Azulay characterized his profile as “guarantor”, defender of fundamental rights and procedural guarantees. Before the senators, Domingues considered the “dialogue between powers” fundamental to the strengthening of democracy.
On November 19, 2021, the STJ released the list of 16 registered judges to compete for the two vacancies. On May 11, the Court chose 4 to present to President Bolsonaro. The Chief Executive could not nominate outside the quadruple list.
Azulay received 19 votes from STJ members in the 1st round, followed by Ney Bello, from TRF-1, who had 17 votes. In the 2nd round, Domingues received 19 votes and, in the 3rd, Fernando Quadros, from TRF-4, reached 21.
Ney Bello, 52 years old, was the most likely to take the job, as anticipated by the Power360 in November 2021. He was once an assistant judge for Minister Gilmar Mendes.
Four months later, however, Domingues took over as the favorite on the nominations list. Azulay, on the other hand, had the preference, within the STJ, of Minister Luis Felipe Salomão.
There is also an open seat on the Court due to the retirement of Minister Felix Fischer, in August 2022. In 2023, another chair will become available, when Minister Laurita Vaz turns 75 and also retires.
Present at this Tuesday’s session were President Bolsonaro; the ministers of the STF (Federal Supreme Court), Luiz Fux, Alexandre de Moraes, Gilmar Mendes, Nunes Marques and Ricardo Lewandowski; former Minister of the Supreme Court Marco Aurélio.
The Ministers of Economy, Paulo Guedes, and Justice, Anderson Torres; the president of the TCU (Union Court of Auditors), Bruno Dantas; the elected governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans); and the president of the National OAB, Beto Simonetti. The session was chaired by Minister Maria Thereza de Assis Moura, from the STJ.
Read the profiles of the new ministers:
- Paulo Sergio Domingues – holds a master’s degree in law from Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Germany, graduated in law from the University of São Paulo and professor of civil procedural law at Fadi (Law Faculty of Sorocaba). He is a career federal judge at the TRF-3, based in SP. In 2010 and in the period between 2004 and 2006, he was part of the Brazilian delegation at the United Nations Conference against Transactional Organized Crime. Since 2014, he has chaired the 7th Panel of the Court and is a member of the Special Body. Previously, he was a lawyer and attorney for the municipality of São Paulo;
- Messod Azulay – federal judge and president of the TRF-2, based in Rio de Janeiro. He graduated from the National Faculty of Law at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and has taken extension courses at Fundação Getúlio Vargas. He entered the TRF-2 by the 5th constitutional through the Order of Lawyers of Brazil. He was director of the Cultural Center of Federal Justice in Rio de Janeiro. He was on the triple list of the STJ in 2014, during the term of the former president Dilma Rousseff (PT).
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