Overview
- In a virtual session, the Court unanimously decided RE 632115 under general repercussion (Tema 950), binding lower courts nationwide.
- The justices overturned a TJ-CE order that had required the State of Ceará to indemnify a judge over statements made by a state deputy on the assembly floor.
- Relator Luís Roberto Barroso argued that imposing objective civil liability on the State would chill criticism and risk indirect censorship of legislative debate.
- The thesis affirms parliamentary immunity as an institutional safeguard for opinions, words and votes while denying coverage to abusive conduct detached from legislative functions.
- Cases where speech falls outside the constitutional protection must target the parliamentarian personally under subjective civil liability, not the public treasury.