“Let’s hope that the TC does not cause problems”, was heard in Parliament on the day that new amendments to the Nationality Law were approved. This is how the state of AR goes: the Constitutional Court is painted as an angry child. He does not allow changes to the Nationality law to pass, which would be essential for defending the country from criminals and opportunists, just because he does not have the will, or because judges are sectarian. If I hadn’t studied Constitutional Law, I might even have started to believe this, the mantra is repeated so often.
Unfortunately, I have bad news: either I am very mistaken or S. Bento is the one who continues to stubbornly create the same problem – not only for the TC, but for our Constitution that sighs, exhausted.
First, the TC does not “create” problems for anyone. The TC exists to ensure that what the majority decides does not exceed our basic guarantees, which allow us to live not only in Democracy, but also in a Rule of Law. Afterwards, either the majority did not read the December rulings, or they think that the Constitution can be defeated through fatigue. If you ask for the same thing too many times, maybe the judges will let it go?
In December, the TC decided that it was unconstitutional to provide, as an additional penalty, the loss of nationality for crimes that, although very serious, are not related to loyalty between a person and the State.
The only crimes that could result in this loss would be crimes against the security of the State, such as treason, espionage and attacks against the rule of law, and crimes of terrorism. For others, including crimes against life and sexual crimes, traditional penalties would have to be applied. But behold, happily, it has just been approved (again) that you can lose your nationality for crimes of homicide and sexual crimes. Some of the cast were eliminated, it’s true. But note: either they didn’t understand or didn’t want to understand the TC’s reasoning. This is because it has nothing to do with the seriousness of the crimes, but with whether or not they are directed at the State. Other crimes are subject to imprisonment and additional penalties aimed at protecting victims, which must be as serious as required. As it always was, in fact. For decades. And this was never questioned, before this matter was chosen as the new majority’s favorite distraction maneuver.
We will continue to have problems. But the problems are not created by the TC, but by the new majority, who believe that there are no standards above them. It is very sad, in fact, that the Constitution is suddenly painted as an obstacle, even more so on its 50th anniversary. In the house where it was approved, by illustrious constituents, like my grandfather Fernando Amaral, whose work I want to pay homage to here — there should be at least this memory: without a Constitution there is no majority that can save us from arbitrariness.
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