Judge allows border firing

SEATTLE — President Bush does have the authority to fire the head of a little-known agency that oversees caretaking of the U.S.-Canada border, a federal judge ruled Friday.

Dennis Schornack, the American head of the International Boundary Commission, found himself in trouble when he threatened to tear down a retaining wall built by a couple in Blaine. Schornack said the wall, though it was on the couple’s property, stuck out three feet into a 10-foot zone along the border that had to remain free of obstruction.

The property owners sued, and when the White House tried to fire Schornack, he insisted he couldn’t be fired and that he was simply trying to do his job. He claimed the language of the 1908 and 1925 treaties that created the border commission did not allow for commissioners to be removed except by death, resignation or disability.

U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman said that was a strong argument, but she ultimately disagreed.

“The 1908 and 1925 treaties do not create judicially enforceable individual rights regarding appointment or removal,” she wrote. “The treaties create obligations between (the U.S. and Canada) that are enforceable through political and diplomatic channels, or by other remedies available in international law, not by individuals in domestic courts.”