Brazil's Supreme Court Splits Open Before the Presidential Vote
On Tuesday, 15 September 2026, rival justices on Brazil's 11-seat Supreme Court traded insults and accusations during a heated plenary hearing, a meeting of the full court, shown live to millions of homes. The Guardian
The sharpest exchange pitted Justice Alexandre de Moraes against Justice André Mendonça. Moraes told Mendonça: “You’re at the service of a political group that tried to launch a coup in this country!” Mendonça replied: “It’s a lie!” The cameras were rolling.
A second clash drew in Justice Gilmar Mendes. Mendes accused Mendonça of using the court's work to cause political chaos and influence October's presidential election. Mendonça answered: “Don’t point your finger at me”. Mendes replied: “Respect is earned, not given.”
The dispute centers on Moraes and Mendonça ahead of the October presidential election between Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro. Both justices will sit on the court expected to settle disputes arising from the vote.
The two men reached the court by different routes. Moraes, 57, was appointed almost a decade ago by president Michel Temer. Mendonça, a Presbyterian pastor and the only openly evangelical member of the court, was appointed during Jair Bolsonaro's 2018-23 presidency. Moraes is linked with the institutional response to the coup plot. Mendonça is linked with the voters who brought Bolsonaro to power.
Former president Jair Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election to Lula. His son Flávio is now the standard-bearer, the leading candidate, for that political movement against Lula. Moraes presided over much of the legal reckoning that followed the 2022 defeat.
The immediate trigger is financial. Banco Master owner Daniel Vorcaro was arrested last November by federal police as he prepared to board a private jet from São Paulo to Malta. Earlier this month, Mendonça unsealed a police dossier, a file of collected evidence, with apparent WhatsApp exchanges between Vorcaro and Moraes and a $25m contract between Banco Master and the law firm of Moraes's wife. Two days before his arrest, Vorcaro texted Moraes asking whether he needed to leave Brazil.
Chief Justice Edson Fachin has suspended justices' rulings amid the power struggle. Reuters The court was expected to decide over the coming week whether to investigate Moraes, according to a 4 September report, while a parallel account described the court as considering investigations into two justices who have accused each other of wrongdoing. Reuters Suspicions of graft, corruption for personal gain, political bias and police interference now loom over several members ahead of the election. Washington Post
The sitting itself was unusual in form. The court's official channel listed the 15 September sitting as “Sessão Extraordinária - 15/9/2026,” while its channel description states that 2026 plenary sessions of the Supremo Tribunal Federal are presented on Wednesdays and Thursdays. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had planned a new nomination to the court after a historic defeat in April.
The broader context here is a court trying to police itself in public while preparing to police an election. Livestreamed plenaries were designed to build transparency after dictatorship. They now send every interruption and raised voice directly to voters. That openness cuts both ways. It exposes alleged private contacts between a justice and a banking suspect, and it exposes the justices arguing about those contacts.
Looking at what this means for the weeks ahead, three pressures intersect. The first is procedural. A decision on whether to open an investigation into Moraes would test internal rules rarely used against a sitting justice, and any move against Mendonça would raise the same test in reverse. The second is electoral. Claims of using cases to influence October will sound very different to Lula supporters and Flávio Bolsonaro supporters. The third is institutional. Fachin's suspension orders may freeze action, but they cannot freeze perception when millions have watched the argument.
In my view, the dossier matters as much as the shouting. WhatsApp logs and legal contracts are document claims that investigators can check. Shouting is performance that voters remember. The court will need to separate the two, and to be seen separating them, before October. Failure on either count leaves a powerful tool in the hands of whoever loses the election and chooses to contest the referee.
