Cármen Lúcia Elected President of STF First Panel

Overview

• The Primeira Turma elected Minister Cármen Lúcia this Tuesday to serve a one‑year term as president beginning September 30 when Flávio Dino’s mandate ends.
• The panel now has four sitting ministers — Cármen Lúcia, Alexandre de Moraes, Cristiano Zanin and Flávio Dino — because the fifth seat remains vacant after the Senate rejected Jorge Messias in April.
• The Primeira Turma handles criminal appeals at the Supreme Court level, so Cármen Lúcia’s presidency will shape the timing and management of cases linked to Jair Bolsonaro, Eduardo Bolsonaro and Silas Malafaia.
• A separate set of appeals likely to reach the Turma stems from Alexandre de Moraes’s orders for Police Federal searches tied to journalist Luís Pablo’s seized phones and to requests for measures against source Raimundo Cutrim that had PGR agreement.
• Under internal STF rules the Turma presidency rotates yearly and cannot be immediately renewed, a setup that — with the current vacancy — will affect which ministers set calendars and how quickly sensitive criminal and press‑source disputes advance.