Brazilian justice: No party switches

Barbosa is the first self-identifying Afro-Brazilian minister of the Brazilian Supreme Court in its 179-year history. He is also vice president of Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court, which oversees the country’s electoral processes.

In his tenure on the two courts, Barbosa has handled some of Brazil’s most controversial cases confronting government corruption.

“Two months ago, we created a precedent that forbade nepotism in the whole government,” Barbosa said. “It was seismic. The Senate has already fired 60 [familial employees] … This is a big shift in our culture.”

The Electoral Court has also made decisions geared toward limiting central cases of government corruption. He described handling more than 7,000 electoral cases with the Superior Electoral Court during this year’s elections, noting that they pitted “individual against individual, party against party, coalition against coalition.”

In attempting to shift the balance of power in Brazil’s National Congress, government employees have been known to influence legislators to get them to switch their party allegiance, Barbosa explained.

“The heart of corruption in the political system … is highly dependent on the majority in Congress. When a government does not have this majority, it goes forward with bargaining with members of Congress [to switch parties],” Barbosa said.

The Electoral Court’s decision to crack down on such cases has revealed the true extent of this problem, he noted.

“The Court decided that it is illegal to change [parties]. Since then, we’ve had 300 cases,” Barbosa said.

While fighting corruption has been a major focus of hiswork, Barbosa has also ruled on cases involving government actions that have made access to adequate healthcare difficult for Brazilians.

“The Courts are the guardians of the people’s right to health. If Congress doesn’t make this concrete, then it is the Courts’ responsibility,” Barbosa explained, referring to the role of Congress in defining which medicines and medical services are to be covered by the government.

“The Constitution says, ‘every citizen has the right to health.’ But that right depends on Congress for effect,” he added.

The Supreme Court has attempted to prevent wasteful spending of government healthcare funds when people try to unfairly take advantage of the system, Barbosa said.

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“Those who go to the Courts are not from the middle class or the poor,” he said. “It is not unusual for someone with a health plan to go to the Courts for access to this expensive medicine.” He noted that this limits availability of certain medicines.

Though the Supreme Court often compensates for some of the inadequacies of the Brazilian Congress, it is the people of Brazil who decide which medical issues are most important, not the judiciary.

Before taking his position in the Supreme Court, Barbosa studied at the Sorbonne and was the public prosecutor for the state of Rio de Janeiro.