Gilmar Mendes’ One-Judge Order Tightens Impeachment Rules for STF Justices, Drawing Pushback

Overview

• Gilmar Mendes issued a provisional order reserving impeachment filings against Supreme Court justices to the Prosecutor General, raising the Senate threshold to two‑thirds to open cases, and barring actions based solely on judicial merits.
• The decision remains in force pending a virtual plenary review starting 12 December, where the full Supreme Court will consider whether to uphold or revise the measures.
• Attorney General Jorge Messias asked Mendes to reconsider and to suspend the order until the plenary ruling, arguing that popular standing is constitutional and that limiting filings to the PGR intrudes on legislative prerogatives, while endorsing a two‑thirds quorum.
• Senate President Davi Alcolumbre called the move a grave offense to the separation of powers, and Congress advanced countermeasures as the Chamber’s Constitution Committee approved a bill curbing monocratic rulings and leaders mobilized bills and amendments on impeachment rules, ministerial terms, and individual decisions.
• The ruling further complicates Messias’s confirmation prospects in the Senate, according to his nomination’s rapporteur, against a backdrop of dozens of citizen‑filed impeachment petitions this year and none from the PGR.