Free Republic

Justice Department lawyers on Friday ridiculed an obscure U.S. border official's argument that he can't be fired by President Bush and is entitled to a job for life. The White House fired Dennis Schornack, of Williamston, Mich., on July 10 from his position as U.S. representative to the International Boundary Commission. That small U.S-Canadian agency maintains markers, clears trees and otherwise serves as caretaker for the long, undefended border between the two countries. Schornack's abrupt dismissal came after he and the Justice Department began arguing about his legal representation in a lawsuit filed by a pair of Washington state property...

The insistence of a Washington state couple that they have a right to build a four-foot concrete wall along 80 feet of the 1,270-mile-long U.S.-Canada boundary in the West has cost a U.S. member of the International Joint Commission his job, according to reports appearing last week in the Canadian news media. If the incident did nothing else, it gave Canadians (prone always to accept the dicta of officialdom) an inkling of how things work on the other side of the border. Apparently, it all started because Herbert and Shirley Ann Leu of Blaine, Wash., couldn't prevent dogs escaping from...

The top American on the International Joint Commission is fired by President Bush. And the reason may be a retaining wall in the Washington border town of Blaine. The city of Blaine doesn't require a building permit for wall four feet high or shorter. The wall is right around four feet. The top American and the top Canadian on the boundary commission both say the fence must come down because it is within ten feet of the border line. They say the "no obstructions within ten feet rule" is established by a 1925 treaty. Shirley-Ann Leu owns the property the...

In a bizarre twist to a dispute over a four-foot-high fence near the U.S.-Canada border in Whatcom County, President Bush on Tuesday fired Dennis Schornack as U.S. Commissioner to the International Boundary Commission and member of the International Joint Commission. "I would like to extend my best wishes in your future endeavors," wrote presidential assistant Liza Wright in conveying Bush's order. The letter told Schornack that he is "terminated effectively immediately." The firing came without warning. The legal counsel to the International Boundary Commission described Bush's order as improper. He argued that Schornack holds a quasi-judicial position with an international...