When a judge asserts himself
The most senior member of the Supreme Federal Court, Celso de Mello, has the chance to definitively prove his independence.
If the signal given by Minister Celso de Mello last Thursday regarding his already formed conviction about the admissibility of the appeals for clarification in Criminal Action 470 is confirmed, the senior member of the Supreme Federal Court will take a decisive step towards asserting his own independence, at the end of a vast and successful career in the highest court in the country.
Regarding Celso de Mello, it is impossible to point to any bias in favor of the defendants throughout a trial that electrified the country. Last October, he delivered a scathing opinion before convicting several figures from the political core for forming a criminal organization. "This anomaly reveals the extremely serious consequences stemming from this unholy alliance between the corrupt and the corrupters, this disloyal and unworthy act by corrupting agents, both public and private, and by corrupt parliamentarians whose criminal behavior has been duly proven, which only serves to disqualify and invalidate, under the country's criminal laws, the actions of these outlaws in power," he said.
What is being discussed now, however, is not whether certain defendants are or are not "outlaws of power." Nor is it whether they will have a new trial, since only in some cases, where they received four favorable votes, can there be a second review. What is being assessed with these appeals is only whether they, like any Brazilian citizens, have their constitutional guarantees and the right to a full defense ensured – rights that have always been safeguarded by the Supreme Federal Court (STF). As a magistrate who has based his entire career on the defense of human rights, Celso de Mello seems determined to follow his highest principles, despite the intense pressure he has been subjected to by his own colleagues.
By postponing the decisive vote by a week, some ministers made a bet: that the senior justice would not be able to withstand the intense pressure on his "broad shoulders," as Marco Aurélio Mello put it. For this very reason, the senior justice preemptively stated, upon leaving Thursday's session, that his position had already been given in August of last year, when he emphatically defended the admissibility of the appeals.
Throughout his career, Celso de Mello has only received one serious criticism regarding his conduct. In the book "Código da Vida" (Code of Life), the jurist Saulo Ramos, who helped nominate him to the Supreme Court, accused him of subjecting his decisions to media interests, as if his main concern were the next day's newspaper – and not the law. On Wednesday, the senior justice will have the opportunity to definitively assert himself, also affirming the independence of the Supreme Court itself. After all, it is not the public that imposes itself on the court, but rather the other way around.