On Wednesday (1), the Senate approved the nomination of André Mendonça, 48, for a vacancy as a Supreme Court Justice. The name of Mendonça, former attorney general of the Union and former justice minister of the Bolsonaro government, was endorsed by 47 votes in favor and 32 against — there were two absences among the 81 senators. At least 41 votes were needed to confirm Mendonça's nomination in the plenary. The number of votes in favor in the Senate was the lowest obtained among all current members of the STF.
Earlier this Wednesday, Mendonça was questioned for eight hours by the Constitution and Justice Commission. The committee members then confirmed the nomination by 18 votes in favor and 9 against.
The central theme of the meeting was the question of his religion, an Evangelical Presbyterian, and how this would affect Mendonça's performance at court. The "terribly evangelical" nominee, as Bolsonaro had promised, committed himself to state secularism, discarding the use of religion in the Supreme Court. "As I have said about myself: in life, the Bible; in the Supreme Court, the Constitution," he said.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon