Cármen closed the STF roulette – lawyers create system that tries to bypass the lottery
Author: Elio Gaspari for Folha de São Paulo
Clever lawyers have created a roulette system to obtain habeas corpus in the Supreme Court. When their petition is denied by a justice, they start over, hoping to get around the justice who refused them. They rely on luck, until the case falls into the hands of a friendly vote.
In October of last year, a request went to Justice Luís Roberto Barroso and he denied the habeas corpus. With the same documentation, they asked again in November and the case went to Justice Dias Toffoli.
New denial and new attempt. By lottery, the request returned to Barroso and he denied the habeas corpus again. They tried again in February of this year. In the hands of Justice Edson Fachin, they had the fourth denial. In March, they persisted. On the fifth attempt, the case fell back on Toffoli’s desk and he denied it again. On the sixth attempt, always by lottery, the process went back to Barroso. Unlucky.
In another case, the habeas corpus was denied by Justice Alexandre de Moraes. In the second attempt, Justice Fachin also denied it. A new draw sent the process to Justice Rosa Weber, the third denial. With each request, the lawyers listed the justices who refused them as coercive authorities. In this way, they increased their chances of bringing the case to a sympathetic justice. In a third case, the maneuver generated the circuit Luis Fux-Alexandre de Moraes-Celso de Mello, always with denials.
President Carmen Lucia closed the roulette and determined that the first case should be with Barroso, the second with Rosa Weber and the third with Fux.
She did more, showing that the “game” “constitutes abuse of the right of defense” and ordered that the cleverness be communicated to the Brazilian Bar Association.
