Et Cetera

The Senate improperly convicted former federal Judge Alcee Hastings for bribery in 1989. So said Judge Stanley Sporkin in Washington, who ruled that the Senate violated Hastings' constitutional rights by appointing a 12-member committee to hear the case, rather than holding a trial by the entire Senate. Sporkin's ruling does not restore Hastings, the first black federal judge in Florida's history, to the bench. But it will probably be appealed to the Supreme Court, while Hastings continues his run for Congress in Florida.