Alcee Hastings Trial and Impeachment: 1983 & 1989

Up to this time, there had been only 13 such impeachment trials: one president, one Senator, one cabinet officer, one Supreme Court justice, and nine federal judges. Of these, only five had been convicted—all federal judges. What followed, however, was quite different from the process that Americans later would become familiar with during the impeachment of President Clinton. Concerned that a trial before the full Senate would keep it from more pressing affairs, the Senate set up a special committee composed of six Democrats and six Republicans. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D) of New Mexico was the chairman, while Senator Arlen Specter (R) of Pennsylvania was vice chairman. Meeting sporadically between July 10 and August 3, 1989, this committee reviewed all the facts, considered the evidence, and heard various witnesses, including Alcee Hastings himself. By mid-October the committee submitted a report but did not recommend action in either direction.

On October 18, as the impeachment trial began, Judge Hastings himself addressed the Senate to urge that they cease the proceedings, but the next day, members of the U.S. Senate gathered in a closed session to consider the case. At this time, Senator Specter, the vice chairman of the special committee, released his lengthy personal letter urging the Senate to reject all charges on grounds of insufficient evidence. The next day, the Senate met in open session, and by a vote of 69-26 found Hastings guilty on the first article, then proceeded (by almost the same margins) to find him guilty of seven more articles. The article that charged he brought "disrepute to the Federal Courts" fell seven votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict.