STF-TSE clash escalates after Dino overturns Mendonça ruling on Tabet post

Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino annulled a ruling by TSE Vice President André Mendonça on Sunday that had ordered the removal of comedian Antonio Tabet's post about an alleged attack on Our Lady of Aparecida. Dino granted the request via a simple petition filed in an unrelated case involving Marlon Reis and Deltan Dallagnol, rather than through a standard appeal to the TSE plenary.

OAB National Civil Procedure Commission President Rogéria Dotti stated the maneuver appears to violate due process and the principle of the natural judge, as it allowed the party to effectively choose the rapporteur. She noted the correct path would have been an independent complaint to the STF subject to random distribution.

“The result is the risk of institutional capture, understood as the functional subordination of the TSE to individual judgments external to the Electoral Justice structure.”

On Monday, TSE President Kassio Nunes Marques sent a formal letter to STF President Edson Fachin warning of a risk of "institutional capture" of the Electoral Court. The letter argues that individual STF justices are interfering in electoral matters before internal appeals are exhausted, undermining the TSE's specialization and collegiality.

Nunes Marques requested that the STF presidency adopt measures regarding urgent petitions related to the 2026 elections. He emphasized that judicial instability during the electoral period, marked by short deadlines, produces consequences that are difficult to reverse.