Gilmar Mendes Keeps Impeachment Limits, Rejects AGU Plea

Overview

• Gilmar Mendes denied Attorney General Jorge Messias’s request to reconsider his injunction and left intact the curbs on impeachment of Supreme Court justices.
• He upheld rules that only the Prosecutor General may file impeachment requests against justices and that opening a case requires two‑thirds of the Senate, citing constitutional flaws in the 1950 law and protection of judicial independence.
• Responding to the decision, Senate President Davi Alcolumbre moved to advance a legislative package to revise the impeachment statute, curb monocratic rulings, and consider broader court reforms, while the Chamber’s CCJ advanced a bill to limit single‑minister injunctions.
• The injunction will be tested by the full court in a virtual session starting December 12, with reporting indicating there is not yet consensus among justices on restricting who can file and on the higher Senate quorum.
• The dispute is complicating Messias’s own nomination to the court, with his Senate hearing canceled, votes reportedly short, and his overture criticizing monocratic excesses failing to win immediate traction with Senate leadership.