Brazil’s Senate approved on Wednesday the nomination of pro-censorship Justice Minister Flavio Dino to the nation’s top court, the Supreme Federal Tribunal.
Dino, who was nominated by radical leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, marks Lula’s second appointee to the already leftist-stacked court since the start of his third presidential term this year.
During his tenure as Brazil’s justice minister, Dino made the regulation of social media a high priority of his office, stressing in March that the Brazilian government had a “dire need” to fight what he described as “hate speech” and the circulation of so-called “fake news.”
Dino, 55, will occupy the vacancy left by former STF Minister (Justice) Rosa Weber, who retired in September prior to her 75th birthday, the compulsory retirement age of all Brazilian judges as established by Brazilian law. Weber was appointed by former Brazilian socialist President Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s protege who was impeached and removed from office in 2016 over corruption allegations.
Dino’s nomination was approved by the Brazilian Senate at the end of a ten-hour debate session with 47 votes in favor and 31 votes against. Dino, a close ally to President Lula and a senator since February, was a former member of the Communist Party of Brazil until 2021, when he joined the Brazilian Socialist Party.
“I am happy and honored. I am grateful for the trust of the President of the Republic and the Federal Senate, which approved my nomination to the Supreme Court,” Dino wrote on Twitter. “Millions of people have helped me, with messages, posts, prayers and support. My warmest regards to you all.”
When asked by the Brazilian Senate, the now-appointed STF minister asserted that he would be “impartial” in court.
“I will have no fear, no trepidation and no prejudice about receiving politicians from Brazil, because you are delegates of popular sovereignty,” Dino said during the nomination hearing. “Regardless of party colors, you will have the same respect, as I have done all my life.”
During the hearing, Senator Magno Malta of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party (PL) criticized Dino’s nomination, stating that Dino “changes positions, but not teams.”
“We’re taking a left-wing militant to the Supreme Court once again. He said he changed his position: from striker to goalkeeper. He changed positions, but he didn’t change teams,” Malta said. “His team is the left-wing team.”
Dino is the second man nominated by Lula to occupy a seat in the nation’s top court since the start of his third presidential term in January.
Lula appointed Cristiano Zanin to occupy another STF vacancy this year. Zanin served as Lula’s lawyer during Operação Lava Jato (“Operation Car Wash”), a broad nationwide corruption investigation that led to Lula being sentenced to over two decades in prison on multiple corruption charges.
Brazilian ex-president (2003-2011) Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrives at the Federal Police headquarters where he is due to serve his 12-year prison sentence, in Curitiba, Parana State, Brazil, on April 7, 2018. (HEULER ANDREY/AFP via Getty Images)
The predominantly leftist STF overturned Lula’s convictions in 2021 on procedural grounds, which allowed Lula to run for office in 2022, narrowly defeating Jair Bolsonaro in a controversial election. Although the STF ruling overturned the multiple convictions, it did not challenge any of the evidence against Lula or the appeals that affirmed the original conviction.
Brazil’s STF, most notably under “anti-fake news crusader” Minister Alexandre de Moraes — who is also the head of the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) — enacted widespread censorship throughout the 2022 presidential election that heavily favored Lula’s campaign.
De Moraes not only ordered the censorship of campaign messages that referred to Lula as “corrupt” or a “thief,” but also ordered multiple police raids against lawmakers, comedians, content creators, and regular citizens supportive of Bolsonaro.
In May 2023, de Moraes authorized “Operation Venire,” a broad probe into allegations that Bolsonaro falsified vaccination documents to travel to the United States, framed as part of an active inquiry to investigate alleged “anti-democratic digital militias” that spread “fake news.” De Moraes approved a raid on Bolsonaro’s house and the arrest of his top aide, Mauro Cid.
In May, the STF also overturned a presidential pardon issued last year by Bolsonaro to conservative former lawmaker Daniel Silveira, arrested in 2021 for publishing a video on his YouTube page that insulted the top court and its members.
The TSE, Brazil’s top electoral authority, banned Bolsonaro from running for office until 2030 after the electoral court ruled that Bolsonaro “violated election laws” by spreading “misinformation” about Brazilian electoral voting machines in July 2022.
Shortly after taking office as justice minister, Dino, who will soon occupy a seat in the STF, presented a “Democracy Package” allegedly conceived in response to the January 8 riots in Brasilia, when thousands of protesters stormed the premises of the nation’s Congress, the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), and the Planalto presidential palace.
The “Democracy Package” contained a bill to heavily punish “terrorist” and “anti-democratic” social media content. The bill – which has been debated by the Brazilian Congress on and off throughout the year, but presently neither approved nor rejected — is reportedly expected to return to the Senate’s spotlight in 2024.
Dino also ordered the Brazilian federal police to investigate Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, after the lawmaker issued a public speech in which he condemned teachers who “indoctrinate” children, asserting that such teachers may even be “worse than a drug trafficker.”
Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the president of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, during a demonstration on Brazil’s Independence Day on September 7, 2021, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Amauri Nehn/NurPhoto via Getty)
Upon being sworn in as an STF Minister, Dino will be replaced in the Brazilian Senate by Senator Ana Paula Lobato from the Brazilian Socialist Party.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.