[1]WASHINGTON (BP)–Charles Colson has issued an urgent plea for the nation’s Christians to involve themselves in the Florida election controversy by telephoning the judges serving on the state’s Supreme Court.
“If we’ve learned anything in recent years, it’s that judges are as susceptible to public pressure as anyone else,” Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries, said in a nationally distributed e-mail Nov. 20.
“Not only are these judges interfering in the electoral process, they are giving further evidence that we have become a country of the courts, by the courts and for the courts,” Colson wrote. “I would not tell anyone what to do, but I’ve made my phone calls.”
The Supreme Court of Florida ordered Katherine Harris, the Florida secretary of state, not to carry out her statutory duty to announce on Nov. 18 the winner of the presidential election in Florida and, thus, the winner of the presidential election.
“By what authority does the court do this?” Colson asked. “With no appeal before it, the court acted on its own motion.
“This not only smacks of judicial usurpation, but it also smacks of partisanship,” Colson added. “The media has been quick to point out that Secretary of State Katherine Harris, though she is acting on the advice of career officials and a Democratic law firm, is a partisan. She may well be, but the same media have said almost nothing about the seven judges.”
[2]Following are telephone listings of the Supreme Court justices as provided by Prison Fellowship:
— Chief Justice Charles T. Wells, (850) 921-1096.
— Justice Leander J. Shaw Jr., (850) 488-0208.
— Justice Major B. Harding, (850) 414-7643.
— Justice R. Fred Lewis, (850) 488-0007.
— Justice Harry Lee Anstead, (850) 488-2281.
— Justice Barbara J. Pariente, (850) 488-8421.
— Justice Peggy A. Quince, (850) 922-5624.
General e-mail for the Florida Supreme Court may be sent to [email protected].
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