Brazil's highest court plunged deeper into chaos this week after Chief Justice Luiz Edson Fachin canceled a second consecutive session of the Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF), an almost unheard-of move that exposed a bitter rift among the justices just weeks before Brazilians head to the polls.

The court now plans to reconvene Tuesday, when all ten remaining justices are expected to debate whether one of their own, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, should face a formal investigation. At issue: federal police documents unsealed on September 1 by Justice André Mendonça, a Bolsonaro appointee, that appear to show disgraced banker Daniel Vorcaro privately seeking advice from de Moraes. Vorcaro was arrested last November on fraud charges tied to the collapse of Banco Master, a failure that left behind more than $7 billion in debt, according to the Washington Post.

A Court Turned on Itself

De Moraes, who became a hero to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's allies after sentencing former President Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison over an alleged coup plot, is now the target of a counter-offensive from Mendonça, Bolsonaro's former solicitor-general. Mendonça is pushing for an inquiry into whether de Moraes abused his power by privately engaging with a banker under criminal investigation.

The infighting has already bled into the machinery of the state: competing court orders this week first removed, then reinstated, the director-general of Brazil's federal police, according to ABC News. Al Jazeera reports that suspicions of graft, political bias and police interference now loom over several sitting justices simultaneously — an extraordinary state of affairs for a court that just last year delivered the country's first-ever coup conviction of a former head of state.

SUSPICIONS OF GRAFT, POLITICAL BIAS AND POLICE INTERFERENCE LOOM OVER SEVERAL OF THE COURT'S MEMBERS — TURMOIL ALREADY SPILLING INTO OCTOBER'S ELECTIONS.

The timing could hardly be worse. Brazil heads into general elections in October, with Lula seeking another term against a Bolsonaro-aligned challenge fronted by Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president's son. Both camps are now demanding investigations that break sharply along political lines, turning the court crisis into a proxy battle for the election itself.

What Happens Next

Fachin has set Tuesday as the date for the full ten-justice bench to take up the de Moraes matter directly. Legal analysts warn that however the court rules, one side of Brazil's polarized electorate will likely view the outcome as proof of a rigged system — a dangerous dynamic for a judiciary still working to rebuild public trust after last year's coup trial. For now, Latin America's largest democracy watches its most powerful court struggle to keep its own house in order.