Amid deepening polarization and the judiciary’s growing role in the country’s political life, Brazil’s Supreme Court has become accustomed to receiving poor ratings from a significant share of the population.
In recent years, most of that opposition has come from the far right, which saw the court as a barrier to its onslaught on democracy — including the attempted coup following the 2022 election.
The problem now is that the dissatisfaction has become widespread — and is being driven precisely by a justice who was central to preserving democracy during the coup attempt saga: Alexandre de Moraes.
According to polling institute Quaest, 66% of Brazilians said that, come October’s elections, they would consider voting for Senate candidates who promise to seek the impeachment of Supreme Court justices.
That survey was conducted amid the ongoing Banco Master scandal, which has raised suspicions of corruption involving a wide range of Brazilian authorities across all branches of government, particularly members of the judiciary and right-wing politicians.
In this investigation, the Federal Police uncovered multiple indications that Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes had been in contact with Daniel Vorcaro, the CEO of Banco Master, through one-time-view messages on WhatsApp. They reportedly spoke just hours before the banker was first arrested, in November last year.
Those conversations have raised serious concerns, as Moraes’s wife, a practicing lawyer, had held a legal services contract with Banco Master for nearly two years, worth a jaw-dropping BRL 3.6 million (around USD 720,000).
Moraes denies having spoken with Vorcaro. His wife, after months, detailed the services she provided the bank — yet many in the legal community believe the sheer value of her contract remains unjustified.
Before this came to light, it had also been revealed that Justice Dias Toffoli — then the rapporteur of the Banco Master investigation — was a partner in a company that had dealings with a fund linked to Vorcaro’s fraud scheme.
He should have immediately recused himself from the case, but only did so after significant political pressure and after issuing a series of decisions that, according to the Federal Police, hindered the investigation. Toffoli says he was unaware of who managed the fund in question.
Given so many questionable actions, what can be done to contain the Supreme Court’s credibility crisis? And how can the institution preserve itself?
To discuss that, our guest is Oscar Vilhena, a constitutional law professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation. He previously worked as a state attorney in São Paulo, directed the United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime, and founded human rights NGO Conectas.
He unpacks:
When and how justices could face investigation
Who can establish a code of conduct for the Supreme Court
Rising inequalities in the legal market, favoring justices’ relatives
What to expect from the court and the Brazilian Bar Association in response
This episode was recorded on March 17, 2026.
