Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court, known as the STF, will resume in-person hearings on Monday after the judiciary’s midyear recess. Its August docket includes cases that could affect app-based work, gambling laws, Indigenous territories, environmental agreements and the succession of Rio de Janeiro’s governor.
The first session, scheduled for 2 p.m. on Aug. 3, will address tax exemptions for vehicle purchases by people with disabilities. Two lawsuits challenge changes introduced by Brazil’s tax reform, which disability-rights organizations say imposed excessive requirements to prove disability and the need for vehicle adaptations. The court began hearing arguments in June and is expected to move to the justices’ votes.
The STF will also decide whether Brazil’s Maria da Penha Law can apply to violence against women when the aggressor has no domestic, family or romantic relationship with the victim. Because the case has “general repercussion,” the court’s interpretation will guide lower courts in similar cases.
On Aug. 5, the justices are scheduled to examine whether the country’s ban on gambling, established under the 1941 Criminal Misdemeanors Law, is compatible with the constitutional principle of free enterprise. Organizing or operating gambling activities currently remains subject to fines and other penalties.
The court is also expected to review an injunction by Justice Flávio Dino that suspended legal and administrative proceedings involving Brazil’s so-called Soy Moratorium. The voluntary agreement limits purchases of soy grown in Amazon areas deforested after July 2008. Lawsuits challenge laws in Mato Grosso and Rondônia that restrict tax incentives for companies participating in such environmental commitments. Negotiations at the STF’s conflict-resolution center ended without an agreement, according to CNN Brasil.
On Aug. 13, the court will consider whether Congress has failed to regulate mining on Indigenous lands. Brazil’s Constitution permits mineral extraction in those territories only with congressional authorization, consultation with affected communities and revenue-sharing with Indigenous peoples. Dino previously recognized a legislative omission and gave Congress 24 months to pass a law; the full court will now review that decision.
The STF is scheduled to resume deliberations on Aug. 19 over how to organize a special election to complete the current term in Rio de Janeiro. The governor and lieutenant governor’s offices became vacant, and the justices disagree over whether the replacement should be chosen by voters or indirectly by the Rio Legislative Assembly.
The month’s most consequential labor case is set for Aug. 27. The court will determine whether drivers working through platforms such as Uber, 99 and Rappi are employees or independent contractors. The ruling is expected to guide thousands of labor lawsuits and could reshape the companies’ business models. The case was postponed after Brazil’s Labor Prosecutor’s Office and Federal Public Defender’s Office requested more time to consider a new International Labour Organization convention on platform work approved in June.
This is single-source reporting based on CNN Brasil’s published account.