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United States Marshals Service
The United States Marshals Service, part of the United States Department of Justice, is the United States' oldest federal law enforcement agency. Their mission is to protect the Federal courts and ensure the effective operation of the judicial system.
Since 1789, U.S. Marshals and their Deputies have provided many different services, from taking the census to protecting the President. Today, the Marshals Service is responsible for providing protection for the federal judiciary, transporting federal prisoners, protecting endangered federal witnesses and managing assets seized from criminal enterprises. In addition, the men and women of the Marshals Service are responsible for 55 percent of arrests of federal fugitives.
The United States Marshals Service is based in Alexandria, Virginia and is headed by a Director, who is assisted by a Deputy Director. The Headquarters serves to provide command and control and cooperation for the disparate elements of the service. The Headquarters is divided into several divisions headed by Assistant Directors and directly controls the Special Operations Group and several other organizations. The Federal Court System is divided into 12 Regions, each having a US Marshal who is also the District US Marshal for the United States district courts in which the Region is headquartered. Each of the 94 Federal Judicial Districts has a US Marshal, an Assistant US Marshal and as many Deputy and Special Deputy US Marshals as needed. The Director and each United States Marshal is appointed by the president of the United States and is confirmed by the Senate. The District US Marshal is tradionally appointed from a list of qualified Law Enforcement persons for that district or State. Each state has at least one District, while several have three or more.
The offices of U.S. Marshal and Deputy Marshals were created by the first Congress in the Judiciary Act of 1789, the same legislation that established the federal judicial system. Special Deputies were allowed to be recruited as local hires or as temporary transfers to the Marshals' Service of other federal law enforcement officers. Marshals were also authorised to swear in a posse to assist them in manhunts and other duties. The Marshals were given extensive authority to support the federal courts within their judicial districts and to carry out all lawful orders issued by judges, Congress, or the President.
The Marshals and their Deputies served the subpoenas, summonses, writs, warrants, and other process issued by the courts, made all the arrests, and handled all the prisoners. They also disbursed the money. The individual Deputy Marshals have been portrayed as legendary heroics in the face of lawlessness.
The Marshals paid the fees and expenses of the court clerks, U.S. Attorneys, jurors, and witnesses. They rented the courtrooms and jail space and hired the bailiffs, criers, and janitors. They made sure the prisoners were present, the jurors were available, and the witnesses were on time.
When George Washington set up his first administration and the first Congress began passing laws, both quickly discovered an inconvenient gap in the constitutional design of the government: It had no provision for a regional administrative structure stretching throughout the country. Both the Congress and the executive branch were housed at the national capital; no agency was established or designated to represent the federal government's interests at the local level. The need for a regional organization quickly became apparent. Congress and the President solved part of the problem by creating specialized agencies, such as customs and revenue collectors, to levy the tariffs and taxes. Yet, there were numerous other jobs that needed to be done. The only officers available to do them were the Marshals and their Deputies.
Thus, the Marshals also provided local representation for the federal government within their districts. They took the national census every 10 years through 1870. They distributed Presidential proclamations, collected a variety of statistical information on commerce and manufacturing, supplied the names of government employees for the national register, and performed other routine tasks needed for the central government to function effectively. Over the past 200 years, Congress and the President also have called on the Marshals to carry out unusual or extraordinary missions, such as registering enemy aliens in time of war, sealing the American border against armed expeditions from foreign countries, and swapping spies with the former Soviet Union.
One of the most infamous jobs the Marshals were tasked with was the recovery of fugitive slaves. With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 the Marshal service was given this task. They were also permitted to form a posse and to deputize any person in any community to aid in the recapture of fugitive slaves. Failure to cooperate with a Marshal resulted in a $5000 fine and imprisonment, a stiff penalty for those days.
In the 1960s the Marshals were on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement, mainly providing protection to volunteers. In 1962 John F. Kennedy ordered the Marshals to accompany James Meredith, an African-American, who wished to register at the University of Mississippi. Their presence on the campus provoked riots at the university, requiring President Kennedy to send in the army to pacify the crowd.
Just as America has changed over the past two centuries, so has its federal justice system – from the original 13 judicial districts, to 94 districts spanning the continent and beyond; and with tens of thousands of federal judges, prosecutors, jurors, witnesses, and defendants involved in the judicial process. The Marshals Service has changed with it, not in its underlying responsibility to enforce the law and execute the orders issued by the court, but in the breadth of its functions, the professionalism of its personnel, and the sophistication of the technologies employed. These changes are made apparent by an examination of the contemporary duties of the modern Marshals Service.
Except for suits by incarcerated persons or (in some circumstances) by seamen, U.S. Marshals no longer serve process in private civil actions filed in the U.S. federal courts. Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, process may be served by any U.S. citizen over the age of 18 who is a not a party or an attorney involved in the case.
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