On 7 December 2016 the Supreme Court of Brazil ruled that defendants in criminal cases cannot serve in the order of presidential substitutes after the charges are accepted for trial. At the time, Senator Renan Calheiros was serving as president of the Federal Senate and was a defendant in a criminal case before the Supreme Court, which meant he could not become acting president of the Republic and was thus excluded from the order of presidential substitutes. Calheiros was succeeded by Eunício Oliveira in February 2017.