Education
She earned her LL.B from the Faculty of Law of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in 1970, and later pursued a graduate degree in Social Anthropology at the same university. Northfleet was also a Fulbright Scholar and assisted in the development of the United States Law Library of Congress Global legal information network project.
Her public career began in 1971, clerking for the Rio Grande do Sul State General Counsel. On November 7, 1973, she joined the Ministério Público Federal, where she remained in the capacity of Federal Prosecutor until 1989, when she first joined the Judiciary, becoming a judge in the Regional Federal Court of the 4th Region, an appeal Court.
Northfleet was appointed to the Supreme Federal Court on November 23, 2000, by then president of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso. She was the first woman to be named to the court. On March 15, 2006, after her appointment by the president, she was confirmed to head this court by a vote of its justices. She replaced Nelson Jobim, who retired on March 30, 2006, presumably to run for office. She was 58 years of age at the time she was appointed by Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
In May 2006, she came very close to becoming the first acting female president, when Luis Inacio Lula da Silva was travelling abroad. According to Brazilian law, when the President is away from the country the next in succession becomes interim president. However, since elections were drawing near, anyone who occupied the post would be disqualified from running for office, so the vice-president, Jose Alencar, and the speaker of the house, Aldo Rebelo, the next in succession and who were considering running, also left Brazil. This would have made her the interim president for at least 10 hours. However, President of the Senate Renan Calheiros, who was not up for re-election and preceded her in the order of succession, stayed behind.
Read more about this topic: Ellen Gracie
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