The central role assumed by the Federal Supreme Court in the Brazilian political scene has raised various theoretical considerations about the part that the constitutional jurisdiction will play, and about its democratic legitimacy. In the Latin-American context, a lot has been said about a new constitutionalism, which is characterized, among other aspects, by a greater scope of prescribed rights and by the strengthening of the judiciary. The present work intends to discuss the Federal Supreme Court’s practice, taking in consideration perspectives created by theories that seek to justify its protagonism. For this purpose, this work assumes that the critical analysis of the phenomenon must contemplate not only legal elements, but also the political nature of many of the choices made by the Court and its members. Therefore, historical judgments of the Court were selected to demonstrate how it has built its persona through time, highlighting both the political and legal dimensions of its action. After that, this work will discuss institutional designs possibilities in countries characterized by strong social inequalities, inside a context of social excitement about the performance of constitutional courts in implementing basic citizenship guarantees. After the theoretical overview, the research approaches the empirical reality of Court practices, verifying to what extent its conducts correspond to the expectationsvcreated around the institutional abilities of constitutional jurisdiction.