STF Sets Virtual Vote Next Week on Indigenous Land 'Marco Temporal'

Overview

• At relator Gilmar Mendes’ request, President Edson Fachin scheduled an extraordinary virtual plenary from Dec. 15–18 to decide four cases on the law reviving the 5 Oct. 1988 cutoff for demarcations.
• The move follows the Senate’s approval of PEC 48/23 to write the cutoff into the Constitution, with the proposal now headed to the Chamber of Deputies.
• Separately, Minister André Mendonça issued a precautionary order suspending Mato Grosso’s 120‑day halt on payroll-deducted loan repayments, citing potential systemic risks to roughly R$12 billion in operations; the full court will still review the measure.
• Mendonça also requested a destaque that halted the virtual review of the INSS restitution pact for improper associative discounts and shifted it to an in‑person session; the agreement remains in force, covering refunds from March 2020 to March 2025 with an estimated R$2.1 billion financed via extraordinary credit outside fiscal limits.
• In a parallel case, the court began hearing a PGR appeal on the scope of special jurisdiction, with Mendes voting to apply the March ruling immediately to all authorities, include holders of life-tenure posts, assign cases with successive offices to the higher court, and generally exclude electoral‑period conduct unless connected to later functional crimes.