In a plenary session, the court’s 10 justices picked the 58-year-old Barbosa, the most senior member, to assume the rotating presidency for a two-year term.
He will formally take his post in the coming weeks.
In a country, where more than half of the 194-million-strong population is of African descent, Barbosa is the only black on the court.
The low-key justice has shot to fame as the most vocal critic of the congressional vote-buying scheme laid bare in the ongoing “Mensalao” (big monthly payments) trial of former top aides of ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva;
Tuesday, six of the court’s 10 judges found Lula’s ex-chief of staff Jose Dirceu guilty in connection with the scheme, which ran from 2002 to 2005 during the popular president’s first term.
