Alcee Hastings, an impeached federal judge who went on to be a Florida congressman for 28 years, died Tuesday at age 84 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
The Fort Lauderdale-area Democrat and civil rights trailblazer’s career had been marked by high-profile highs and lows.
Before joining Congress, Hastings was a federal judge who was impeached by the House in 1988 after being accused of accepting a $150,000 bribe. The Senate convicted him and removed him from the bench.
But Hastings was not barred from holding office. In 1992, he won a newly created House seat, in which constituents didn’t seem particularly bothered by his background. During the 1992 primary campaign for the seat, against now-Rep. Lois Frankel, a Democratic in a neighboring South Florida district, Hastings reportedly visited a half-dozen churches every Sunday in pursuit of votes. He was quoted in one story describing Frankel, his white and Jewish opponent: “That b—- is a racist.”
The Palm Beach Post in 2019 described Hastings as a “phoenix, rising from the ashes of his judicial career to begin a new one in Congress.”
Hastings’s ouster from the federal judiciary became a point that Republicans used to support their arguments for impeaching former President Bill Clinton in 1998. A House impeachment managers’ brief cited the Hastings case as precedent.
During the impeachments of former President Donald Trump, Hastings’s impeachment came to attention again. After all, Hastings is among only seven federal judges convicted and removed from office.
Once in Congress, though, Hastings made friends across the aisle and worked on legislation in a bipartisan manner. Hastings made his way to be a senior member of the powerful House Rules Committee.
Hastings brought with him the moral authority of an accomplished civil rights activist. In the 1960s and 1970s, Hastings partnered with lawyer W. George Allen and filed many civil rights cases aimed at desegregation. President Jimmy Carter nominated Hastings as a U.S. district court judge for north Florida, in 1977.
The vacancy in Florida’s 20th District created by Hastings’s death will be filled by a special election, the timing of which will be determined by Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The district is considered a safe Democratic seat. However, with redistricting looming and Republicans controlling the map-drawing process, it could be carved up.
More immediately, Hastings’s death means a slimmer House majority. There are now 218 Democrats in the House, 211 Republicans, and six vacancies.
