2LT International News

BRASILIA, Brazil: Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Luis Roberto Barroso announced this week that he will step down from the court — well before his mandatory retirement date in 2033.

His decision opens a new vacancy on Brazil’s 11-member Supreme Court, giving President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva the opportunity to appoint a third justice during his current term.

“It’s time to move in a new direction. I have no attachment to power and would like to live the rest of my life without the responsibilities of the role,” Barroso said during a court session.

Barroso, 67, was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2013 by former President Dilma Rousseff. He served as President of the Court for two years, until September. During his tenure, the court made several significant rulings, including the recent decision to sentence former President Jair Bolsonaro to more than 27 years in prison for attempting to overturn the 2022 election results. Barroso did not participate in that decision, as he was not part of the judging panel.

Earlier this year, in an interview with the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at Harvard Kennedy School, Barroso spoke candidly about corruption in Latin America. He said that structural and institutional corruption has long been one of the region’s deepest problems — and that Brazil’s expensive electoral system contributes to it.

“Reducing campaign costs through political reform is certainly an important step,” he said. “Another chronic problem is an oligarchical pact through which extractive elites protect themselves and tolerate corruption, bribery, and other unacceptable behavior.”

Barroso also criticized Brazil’s judicial system for being too lenient toward white-collar crime. “Unfortunately, the judiciary is also part of this pact,” he said. “It treats white-collar criminality as less serious, allowing cases to drag on until they expire or are nullified. It is a sad picture of accepting the unacceptable.”

The Brazilian Supreme Court is composed of 11 justices, all of whom must be native-born Brazilians aged 35 or older. The president appoints justices, and the Senate must approve them before they take office.