| Supreme Federal Court | |
|---|---|
| Supremo Tribunal Federal | |
 | |
 | |
 Interactive map of Supreme Federal Court | |
| 15°48′08″S47°51′43″W / 15.80222°S 47.86194°W /-15.80222; -47.86194 | |
| Established | 28 February 1891; 134 years ago (1891-02-28) |
| Location | Brasília, Federal District, Brazil |
| Coordinates | 15°48′08″S47°51′43″W / 15.80222°S 47.86194°W /-15.80222; -47.86194 |
| Composition method | Presidential nomination withSenateconfirmation |
| Authorised by | Constitution of Brazil |
| Appeals from | Superior Courts State Courts of Justice |
| Judge term length | Life tenure (mandatory retirement at age 75) |
| Number of positions | 11 |
| Website | portal |
| President | |
| Currently | Edson Fachin |
| Since | 29 September 2025 |
| Vice President | |
| Currently | Alexandre de Moraes |
| Since | 29 September 2025 |
| This article is part of a series on the |
| Politics of Brazil |
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Political ideologies |
TheSupreme Federal Court (Portuguese:Supremo Tribunal Federal,[suˈpɾẽmutɾibuˈnawfedeˈɾaw], abbreviatedSTF) is thesupreme court (court of last resort) ofBrazil, serving primarily as the country'sconstitutional court. It is the highestcourt of law in Brazil for constitutional issues and its rulings cannot be appealed. On cases involving exclusively non-constitutional issues, regarding federal laws, the highest court is, by rule, theSuperior Court of Justice.
The current court was preceded by the House of Appeals of Brazil (Casa de Suplicação do Brasil), which was inauguratedduring the colonial era on 10 May 1808, the year that the Portuguese royal family (theHouse of Braganza) arrived in Rio de Janeiro afterfleeing to Brazil.
The Brazilianproclamation of Independence and the adoption of theImperial Constitution in 1824 preceded the establishment of the Supreme Court of Justice (Supremo Tribunal de Justiça) in 1829, which served as theBrazilian Empire's supreme court. With thefall of the monarchy and Brazil's firstRepublican Constitution, the current court was established.
Although the constitutional norms that regulated the creation of the court allowedDeodoro da Fonseca, Brazil's first president, to nominate an entirely new court, the president chose to nominate as the first members of the Supreme Federal Court the ministers who were then serving as members of the imperial court that preceded it.
Two hundred members have served on the court. The Constitution of 1891 provided that the court would have 15 members. WhenGetúlio Vargas came into power, the number of members was reduced to 11. The number was changed to 16 in 1965, but returned to 11 in 1969 and has not changed since. Of all Presidents of Brazil, onlyCafé Filho andCarlos Luz (acting) never nominated a minister.
All judicial and administrative meetings of the STF have been broadcast live on television since 2002. The court is open for the public to watch the meetings.
On 8 January 2023, the building wasattacked by supporters of the former president,Jair Bolsonaro.[1] On November 13, 2024,a bomb was set off outside the court. The perpetrator was the only fatality.[2]
Alongside its appeal competence, mostly by the Extraordinary Appeal (Recurso Extraordinário), the Court has a small range of cases oforiginal jurisdiction, including the power ofjudicial review, judging theconstitutionality of laws passed by theNational Congress, through a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (Ação Direta de Inconstitucionalidade, or ADI). There are also other mechanisms for reaching the Court directly, such as the Declaratory Action of Constitutionality (Ação Declaratória de Constitucionalidade, or ADC) and the Direct Action of Unconstitutionality by Omission (Ação Direta de Inconstitucionalidade por Omissão or ADO).
In May 2009The Economist called the Supreme Federal Court "the most overburdened court in the world, thanks to a plethora of rights and privileges entrenched in the country's 1988 constitution (...) till recently the tribunal's decisions did not bind lower courts. The result was a court that is overstretched to the point of mutiny. The Supreme Court received 100,781 cases last year."[3]
Overruling seems to be frequent in STF jurisprudence: "three years ago when the STF adopted the understanding that defendants who have a conviction upheld by a single appellate court may be sent to jail to begin serving their sentences. (...) The 2016 decision happened largely due to a change in opinion from MinisterGilmar Mendes (...). He had voted against sending defendants to jail after a single failed appeal in 2009, but changed his mind in 2016. Jump to 2019, and the circumstances – both political and judicial – have changed".[4]
The President of the STF and its Vice President are elected by their peers for a two-year term bysecret ballot. The incumbent president is Minister Luís Roberto Barroso.[5]
Reelection for a consecutive term is not allowed. By tradition, the most senior minister who has not yet served in the presidential role is elected as the president by the court members, to avoid politicisation of the court.
If all currently sitting members have already served in the presidential role, the rotation starts all over again. However, due to vacancies caused by thecompulsory retirement age and subsequent appointment of new ministers, it is very rare for the cycle to be ever completed. Some ministers are forced to retire before their turn for the presidency arrives, as was expected to happen withTeori Zavascki.
According to the same convention, the minister who is next in the line of succession for the presidency will serve as the vice-president for the time being. Also by tradition, the elections of the president and vice-president are never unanimous, there being always one isolated minority vote in each election, as the ministers who are to be elected never cast their votes for themselves; such votes are cast either for the dean of the court— its most senior member — or for some other elder minister that the one to be elected admires and wants to pay homage to.
The chief justice is also the 4th in thepresidential line of succession, when thePresident of the Republic becomes prevented to be in charge, being preceded by theVice President, thePresident of the Chamber of Deputies, and thePresident of the Federal Senate, as provided in Article 80 of theBrazilian Constitution.[6]
The eleven judges of the court are called Ministers (Ministros), although have no similarity with the government body of ministers. They are appointed by thePresident and approved by theFederal Senate. While there is no term length, there is amandatory retirement age of 75.[7]
| Order of seniority | Justice[M] | Born (date and state) | Appointed by | Age at inauguration | Initial date (inauguration) | Limit date (retirement) | Main previous functions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | .jpg) | 30 December 1955 in | Cardoso | 46 | 20 June 2002 | 30 December 2030 | Prosecutor of the Republic (1985–1988), deputy chief for Legal Issues of theChief of Staff (1996–2000),Attorney General of the Union (2000–2002) |
| 2 |  | 19 April 1954 in | Lula | 52 | 21 June 2006 | 19 April 2029 | Attorney of the State of Minas Gerais (1983–2006) |
| 3 | .jpg) | 15 November 1967 in | Lula | 41 | 23 October 2009 | 15 November 2042 | Lawyer (1991–2009), deputy chief for Legal Issues of theChief of Staff (2003–2005),Attorney General of the Union (2007–2009) |
| 4 |  | 26 April 1953 in | Rousseff | 57 | 3 March 2011 | 26 April 2028 | Prosecutor ofPublic Prosecutor's Office of Rio de Janeiro (1979–1982), judge of the state of Rio de Janeiro (1983–1997),desembargador of the Justice Court of the state of Rio de Janeiro (1997–2001),minister of STJ (2001–2011) |
| 5 | .jpg) | 8 February 1958 in | Rousseff | 57 | 16 June 2015 | 8 February 2033 | Lawyer (1980–2015), Attorney of the State of Paraná (1990–2006) |
| 6 | .jpg) | 13 December 1968 in | Temer | 48 | 22 March 2017 | 13 December 2043 | Prosecutor of thePublic Prosecutor's Office of the state of São Paulo (1991–2002), lawyer ofpublic law (2010–2014),minister of Justice and Public Security (2016–2017) |
| 7 |  | 16 May 1972 in | Bolsonaro | 48 | 5 November 2020 | 16 May 2047 | Desembargador of theRegional Federal Court of the 1st Region (2011–2020) |
| 8 |  | 27 December 1972 in | Bolsonaro | 48 | 16 December 2021 | 27 December 2047 | Attorney General of the Union (2019–2021),Minister of Justice and Public Security (2020) |
| 9 | .jpg) | 15 November 1975 in | Lula | 47 | 3 August 2023 | 15 November 2050 | Lawyer (2000–2023) |
| 10 |  | 30 April 1968 in | Lula | 55 | 22 February 2024[8] | 30 April 2043 | Minister of Justice and Public Security (2023–2024),Governor of Maranhão (2015–2022),Senator for Maranhão (2023), Federal Judge (1996–2006) |
| 11 | (vacant)[9] |
Notes
| State | Federal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Superior courts | 0 | Supreme Federal Court STF | 1 | |
| Federal superior courts | 4 | |||
| Common justice | Court of Justice TJ | 27 | Federal Regional Courts TRF1 .. TRF6 | 6 |
| Specialized justice | Court of Military Justice [pt] | 3 | Electoral Justice Courts TRE | 27 |
| TJM | Regional Labor Courts TRT | 24 | ||
| Total [11][12][13] | 30 | 62 | ||
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