Justice Ricardo Lewandowski announces his retirement from the Supreme Court.
The minister participated in his last session at the Court this Thursday.
247/Conjur - After 17 years on the Supreme Court, Justice Ricardo Lewandowski announced this Thursday (30) that he will retire on April 11, a month before the deadline for his departure from the court. He, who is 75 years old (the limit imposed by the 1988 Constitution on the ministers' service), participated in his last session at the Court this Thursday.
The favorite to fill Lewandowski's vacancy is lawyer Cristiano Zanin, an icon in the fight against the lawfare promoted by Lava Jato against President Lula. One of the great missions of the Supreme Court in the coming years is to combat the instrumentalization of the Justice system for political ends, as the operation of national destruction did.
Another possible name for the position is that of lawyer Manoel Carlos de Almeida Neto. There are also sectors in the public debate that advocate for the appointment of a Black woman to the post.
"I have just delivered to the president of the Supreme Federal Court a letter in which I request that she forward to the President of the Republic my request for retirement, brought forward by 30 days," said the minister, clearly emotional, to the journalists who were waiting for him at the exit of the court. "This anticipation is due to academic and professional commitments that await me. I am closing one cycle in my life and now beginning another," said the minister, according to Conjur.
"I leave here with the conviction that I have fulfilled my mission. My office is practically empty, there are only a few processes pending administrative decisions," said Lewandowski.
The minister also commented on the qualities he expects from his successor. He said that the next person appointed by President Lula must be faithful to fundamental rights and guarantees and to the Constitution.
"Beyond the constitutional requirements, which are an unblemished reputation, notable legal knowledge, and the age of 35, I believe that my successor must be faithful to the Constitution, utterly faithful to the Constitution, to fundamental rights and guarantees, across its various generations, but above all, must be courageous. He must face the enormous pressures that a Supreme Court Justice has to confront daily," he stated.
Lewandowski, who has been a member of the court since 2006, currently has one of the smallest caseloads in the tribunal, with 808 cases. He is ahead only of Rosa Weber (83 cases), who, as president of the Supreme Court, has a smaller number of cases under her responsibility; Alexandre de Moraes (685); and Cármen Lúcia (700).
Most of the cases under Lewandowski's purview involve Administrative Law and Public Law (353 cases). Next are cases in Criminal Procedure Law (108), Tax Law (84), Criminal Law (62), Labor Law (39), and Civil Law (26).