11/18/2023 – 8:00
The president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), said yesterday that the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) that limits the powers of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) could be voted on next Tuesday. The proposal prevents decisions taken by a single STF minister from suspending the validity of laws or acts of the presidents of the Republic, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.
The PEC also defines a period of six months, extendable for another four, for granting requests for approval. The analysis time becomes collective. In other words, when a minister requests extra time to analyze a case under trial, all others will have the right to view it.
At the end of last year, there was a change in the rule. Requests now have a maximum deadline of three months. Once the period is over, the process automatically returns to the Supreme Court plenary. Presented in 2021 by a group of senators headed by Oriovisto Guimarães (Podemos-PR), the proposal is part of an offensive by the National Congress amid tension between the Legislature and the Court.
Before going to the vote, the PEC went through four sessions where it was discussed. The last one will take place on Tuesday. Then it will be ready to be voted on, said Pacheco. It will be up to party leaders to decide whether to include it on the voting agenda.
Conflict
The PEC is part of a set of proposals whose processing has gained momentum in recent weeks due to a conflict of powers between the Legislature and the Judiciary. Some parliamentarians believe that ministers have acted to invalidate laws approved in Congress. The most cited case is that of the time frame for indigenous lands, in which Congress and the Supreme Court took different paths – the Legislature endorsed the thesis that reserves can only be demarcated on lands already occupied on the date of promulgation of the 1988 Constitution; the STF rejected it.
Last Monday, ministers Luís Roberto Barroso, president of the STF, and Gilmar Mendes, dean of the Court, criticized another PEC, which gives Congress the power to annul Supreme Court decisions that have become final and unappealable. They said that the rule refers to a mechanism present in the 1937 Constitution, written by the Dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas.
The information is from the newspaper The State of S. Paulo.
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