Supreme Federal Court reviews law in Santa Catarina banning racial quotas in universities
The court is reviewing the constitutionality of a measure that is seen as a setback for racial equality policies and the right to education
Foto: STF/divulgação
This week the Supreme Federal Court began reviewing Direct Actions of Unconstitutionality (ADIs 7.925, 7.926, 7.927 and 7.928) challenging Santa Catarina state law 19.722/2026, which bans racial quotas and other ethnic-racial affirmative action policies for student admissions and for the hiring of faculty, technicians, and all other personnel in public state universities and in private institutions that receive public funding. The case will be analyzed via a virtual plenary session, under the rapporteurship of Justice Gilmar Mendes.
The Santa Catarina law represents a serious setback. In addition to barring policies reserving places for student admissions, it also affects hiring processes and establishes sanctions such as administrative fines, the suspension of public funding, and liability for public officials. In practice, the measure undermines mechanisms built over decades of struggle by the Black movement and civil society organizations to address the longstanding inequalities produced by structural racism.
Racial quotas: a historic achievement already recognized by the Supreme Federal Court
Racial quotas are not a privilege: they are public policies aimed at reparation and promoting substantive equality. Their constitutionality was recognized by the Supreme Court in 2012, in a landmark ruling on affirmative action in higher education. Since then, the country has consolidated a legal and institutional framework that reaffirms the legitimacy of these measures, including through the renewal of the federal policy on quotas. Banning them through state legislation runs counter to this accumulated legal, political, and social progress.
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In Santa Catarina, where deep-seated racial inequalities still exist, barring quotas is likely to further restrict the Black population’s access to higher education and undermine universities’ autonomy in formulating inclusion policies.
This situation is even more serious because, even before the law was passed, conditions in the state were already drawing international concern. During a visit to Brazil, the UN Special Rapporteur on racism, Ashwini K. P. highlighted the alarming increase in neo-Nazi cells and hate crimes in Santa Catarina. In this context, the absence of adequate affirmative action policies worsens the climate of intolerance and racial discrimination.
It also reinforces a rationale of denying racism that is incompatible with the 1988 Constitution and with international pledges undertaken by Brazil in the fields of human rights and racial equality.
The gravity of the measure has already led to the preliminary suspension of the law by the Court of Justice of Santa Catarina. It is now up to the Supreme Federal Court to provide a definitive response regarding the incompatibility of the measure with the Constitution and the impossibility of rolling back a right that has been recognized and institutionalized.
Conectas, Geledés (Black Women’s Institute) and the Public Defender’s Office of Santa Catarina seek to join the case
Conectas is monitoring the case because it sees the defense of racial quotas as part of defending democracy, substantive equality, and the right to education. Together with Geledés – Black Women’s Institute and the Public Defender’s Office of the state of Santa Catarina, we have petitioned to join the proceedings as amicus curiae.
The petition is pending review. In the submission presented to the Supreme Court, the organizations hold that the Santa Catarina law violates the authority of the federal government to legislate on educational guidelines, infringes on the autonomy of the universities, disregards the principal prohibiting retrogression, and undermines a policy that is essential in addressing structural racism in Brazil.
In March, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly passed a resolution recognizing the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans as the most serious crime against humanity, in a political and moral milestone of great international significance.
As well as contravening the Constitution and international pledges made by Brazil, the measure in Santa Catarina is also incompatible with this recent recognition. The resolution highlights the lasting effects of this historic violence and the persistence, to this day, of the injustices arising from it. This reinforces the State’s duty to address these inequalities, including by means of affirmative action policies.
An update on the proceedings
The review of ADIs 7.925, 7.926, 7.927 and 7.928 started on 10 April in the virtual plenary session of the Supreme Federal Court, with the vote of the rapporteur, Justice Gilmar Mendes, who found Santa Catarina law 19.722/2026 –known as the Anti-Quota Law—entirely unconstitutional.
On Friday (17), the plenary of the Supreme Federal Court unanimously decided to strike down the measure, with the vote concluding 10-0.
