Selective Justice Weakens Institutions and Alienates Citizens
By Hotspotnews
The reported private comments attributed to Senate President Davi Alcolumbre have landed like a political grenade. According to the account circulating widely, Alcolumbre indicated that the only impeachment request against a Supreme Court minister he would consider placing on the Senate agenda would be one targeting André Mendonça.
For millions of Brazilians who value institutional consistency and equal application of the law, this statement is not merely political maneuvering. It is an insult.
André Mendonça represents something rare on the current Supreme Court: a minister appointed during a conservative administration, an evangelical Christian who has publicly spoken in defense of religious liberty, traditional family structures, and limits on judicial overreach. Many ordinary citizens, particularly those outside the Brasília establishment, see him as one of the few remaining voices willing to push back against what they view as an activist court. To single him out as the acceptable target for impeachment while other ministers face dozens of pending requests sends a clear message: some justices are protected, others are expendable.
This kind of selectivity offends people who still believe the Senate should function as a check on power rather than an extension of it. Citizens who followed the long confirmation process for Mendonça, who watched him survive intense opposition, now hear that the Senate president views him as uniquely vulnerable. The implication is unmistakable. Impeachment is not being treated as an exceptional constitutional tool reserved for grave misconduct. It is being treated as a political weapon to be used against inconvenient figures.
The damage to Alcolumbre’s own image is equally severe. A Senate president is supposed to project institutional gravitas. Private conversations that appear to pick winners and losers among Supreme Court justices undermine that posture. Instead of appearing as a defender of the Senate’s prerogatives, Alcolumbre now looks, to a large portion of the public, like a politician settling scores or aligning with one faction of the judiciary against another.
Trust in institutions was already fragile. When the president of the Senate signals that only one particular minister is fair game, it confirms the worst suspicions held by many conservatives: that the rules change depending on who occupies the seat. That perception does not stay confined to social media. It filters into everyday conversations among small business owners, farmers, pastors, and families who feel the political class no longer even pretends to apply the same standard to everyone.
A serious institution does not advertise which justice it is willing to sacrifice. Doing so cheapens both the Senate and the Court. Alcolumbre’s reported remarks have not strengthened his position. They have made him appear smaller, more calculating, and less trustworthy in the eyes of citizens who expected better from the man who leads the upper house.
ATTENTION-DISCLAIMER
The specific claim that Alcolumbre said in private conversations he would only agenda an impeachment against André Mendonça comes from a social media graphic that circulated with the original post, attributed to “a newspaper.” Major outlets have not independently published a direct quote matching that exact wording.
Related reporting includes:
• Gazeta do Povo (August 2026) cited columnist Lauro Jardim of O Globo on a dinner at Alexandre de Moraes’s house involving Lula and Alcolumbre that allegedly discussed ways to weaken Mendonça, who reports the Banco Master and INSS investigations.
• VEJA has covered Alcolumbre’s long-standing tensions with Mendonça, noting the senator’s allies appear in probes Mendonça oversees.
• Estadão, Valor Econômico, G1, and Folha reported Alcolumbre’s public remarks that 109 pending impeachment requests against STF ministers is “not normal,” while he declined to comment on specific cases such as Moraes.
• Historical coverage (O Globo, UOL) notes Alcolumbre delayed Mendonça’s 2021 confirmation hearing for months.
Relevant hashtags circulating around the topic:
#ForaAlcolumbrejá
#ForaAlcolumbre
#ImpeachmentAlcolumbre
#AndréMendonça
#STF
#SenadoFederal
The graphic’s precise private-conversation claim remains unverified by the major newspapers that usually break such stories.
