United States Marshals Service
The United States Marshals Service is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The Marshals Service serves as the enforcement and security arm of the U.S. federal judiciary. It is an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice and operates under the direction of the U.S. attorney general. U.S. Marshals are the original U.S. federal law enforcement officers, created by the Judiciary Act of 1789 during the presidency of George Washington as the "Office of the United States Marshal" under the U.S. district courts. The USMS was established in 1969 to provide guidance and assistance to U.S. Marshals throughout the federal judicial districts.
The Marshals Service is primarily responsible for locating and arresting federal suspects, the administration of fugitive operations, the management of criminal assets, the operation of the United States Federal Witness Protection Program and the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System, the protection of federal courthouses and judicial personnel, and the protection of senior government officials through the [|Office of Protective Operations]. Throughout its history the Marshals have also provided unique security and enforcement services including protecting African American students enrolling in the South during the civil rights movement, escort security for United States Air Force LGM-30 Minuteman missile convoys, law enforcement for the United States Antarctic Program, and protection of the Strategic National Stockpile.
History
Origins
The office of United States Marshal was created by the First Congress. President George Washington signed the Judiciary Act into law on September 24, 1789. The act provided that a United States Marshal's primary function was to execute all lawful warrants issued to him under the authority of the United States. The law defined marshals as officers of the courts charged with assisting federal courts in their law-enforcement functions:Six days after signing the act into law, President Washington appointed the first thirteen U.S. Marshals, for each of the then extant federal districts. To each of his appointees for Marshal and District Attorney, the president addressed a form letter:
The critical Supreme Court decision affirming the legal authority of the federal marshals was made in.
For over 100 years marshals were patronage jobs, typically controlled by the district judge. They were paid primarily by fees until a salary system was set up in 1896. Many of the first U.S. Marshals had already proven themselves in military service during the American Revolutionary War. Among the first marshals were John Adams's son-in-law Congressman William Stephens Smith for the District of New York, another New York district marshal, Congressman Thomas Morris, and Henry Dearborn for the District of Maine.
From the nation's earliest days, marshals were permitted to recruit special deputies as local hires, or as temporary transfers to the Marshals Service from other federal law-enforcement agencies. Marshals were also authorized to swear in a posse to assist with manhunts, and other duties, ad hoc. Marshals were given extensive authority to support the federal courts within their judicial districts, and to carry out all lawful orders issued by federal judges, Congress, or the president. Federal marshals were by far the most important government officials in territorial jurisdictions. Local law enforcement officials were often called "marshals" so there is often an ambiguity whether someone was a federal or a local official.
Federal marshals are most famous for their law enforcement work, but that was only a minor part of their workload. The largest part of the business was paper work—serving writs, and other processes issued by the courts, making arrests and handling all federal prisoners. They also disbursed funds as ordered by the courts. 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 that the witnesses were on time. The marshals thus provided local representation for the federal government within their districts. They took the national census every decade 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.
19th century
During the War of 1812, marshals such as Peter Le Barbier Duplessis played a significant role in communicating intelligence and in defense of key sites such as New Orleans. During the settlement of the American frontier, marshals served as the main source of day-to-day law enforcement in areas that had no local government of their own. U.S. Marshals were instrumental in keeping law and order in the "Old West" era. They were involved in apprehending desperadoes such as Bill Doolin, Ned Christie, and in 1893, the infamous Dalton Gang after a shoot-out that left dead Deputy Marshals Ham Hueston and Lafe Shadley, and posse member Dick Speed. Individual deputy marshals have been seen as legendary heroes in the face of rampant lawlessness with Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Dallas Stoudenmire, and Bass Reeves as examples of well-known marshals. Bill Tilghman, Heck Thomas, and Chris Madsen formed a legendary law enforcement trio known as "Three Guardsmen" when they worked together policing the vast, lawless Oklahoma and Indian Territories.Until its repeal in 1864, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 tasked marshals to accept an affidavit on its face to recover a fugitive slave.
On October 26, 1881, Deputy U.S. Marshal and Tombstone City Marshal Virgil Earp, his brothers, Deputy City Marshal Morgan and temporary Assistant City Marshal Wyatt, and temporary Assistant City Marshal John "Doc" H. Holliday, gunned down Frank and Tom McLaury and Billy Clanton in the legendary gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. In 1894, U.S. Marshals helped suppress the Pullman Strike.
Marshals of the Consular Court
During the 19th century, the United States government appointed marshals to be attached to the courts of American consulates in China, the Ottoman Empire, and Siam. The duties of these marshals included settling shipboard disputes and mutinies aboard American vessels, the apprehension of runaway sailors and American crews engaged in the illegal slave trade, adjusting claims for damages caused by American sailors to natives, and the rescue of natives kidnapped for slavery by Americans.20th century
During the 1920s, U.S. Marshals enforced Prohibition. Marshals registered enemy aliens in wartime, sealed the American border against armed expeditions from foreign countries, and at times during the Cold War also swapped spies with the Soviet Union.In the 1960s the marshals were on the front lines of the civil rights movement, mainly providing protection to volunteers. In September 1962, President John F. Kennedy ordered 127 marshals to accompany James Meredith, an African American who wished to register at the segregated University of Mississippi. Their presence on campus provoked riots at the university, but the marshals stood their ground, and Meredith registered. Marshals provided continuous protection to Meredith during his first year at Ole Miss, and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy later proudly displayed a deputy marshal's dented helmet in his office. U.S. Marshals also protected black school children integrating public schools in the South. Artist Norman Rockwell's famous painting The Problem We All Live With depicted a tiny Ruby Bridges being escorted by four towering United States Marshals in 1964.
In 1956, the Executive Office for U.S. Marshals was created as "the first organization to supervise U.S. Marshals nationwide". Until 1966, each U.S. district court hired and administered its own marshals independently from all others. The United States Marshals Service was created in 1969. Since June 1975, the Marshals Service has the mission of providing law enforcement support and escort security to United States Air Force LGM-30 Minuteman and missile systems from military facilities.
In 1985, the Marshals Service partnered with local Washington, D.C., law enforcement officers to create Operation Flagship, arresting fugitives by using faked free tickets to a local American football game as a lure. In 1989, the Marshals Service was given jurisdiction over crimes committed relating to U.S. personnel in Antarctica. During the 1992 Los Angeles riots, 200 deputy marshals of the tactical unit [|Special Operations Group] were dispatched to assist local and state authorities in restoring peace and order throughout Los Angeles County, California. In the 1990s, deputy marshals protected abortion clinics.
21st century
Marshals have protected American athletes at Olympic Games, the refugee boy Elián González before his return to Cuba in 2000, and abortion clinics as required by federal law. In 2003, Marshals retrieved North Carolina's copy of the Bill of Rights.In 2002, the Marshals Service was tasked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide protective security and law enforcement capabilities in the protection of the Strategic National Stockpile, such as warehouses, materiel and CDC personnel during deployment. Marshals also provide secure transportation of critical medical supplies and bio-terrorism response resources throughout the nation. Senior Inspectors of the U.S. Marshals Service SNS Security Operations Program have deployed to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and responded during the H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009. SNSSO Senior Inspectors have also staffed National Security Special Events with their state, local and other federal partners on a regular basis.
In 2006, the Sex Offenders Investigations Branch was formed on July 27 with the passage of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. The SOIB carries out the USMS's three principal responsibilities under the AWA: assist state, local, tribal, and territorial authorities in the location and apprehension of non-compliant and fugitive sex offenders; investigate violations of the act for federal prosecution, and assist in the identification and location of sex offenders relocated as a result of a major disaster. To ensure the safety of communities and children across the country, the USMS has implemented an aggressive enforcement strategy for its responsibilities under the AWA. This branch apprehends sex offenders, primarily those who prey on minors. Offenders are apprehended due to failure to register, among other things.
In February 2017, Marshals began providing protective security to United States secretary of education Betsy DeVos, the first time since 2009 that a United States Cabinet-level official has been provided security by the Marshals. Marshals were deployed to keep order in Washington, D.C. during the George Floyd protests on May 31, 2020, as well as during the January 6 United States Capitol attack. Since January 8, 2021 the Office of Protective Operations no longer provides protective services to the United States secretary of education as Betsy DeVos resigned and it was considered that her successor Miguel Cardona did not need the security based on the fact that there was an absence of a credible threat against his life or that of his family.
On April 29, 2024, in Charlotte, North Carolina, one Marshal, two Department of Adult Corrections officers, and one local police officer on a task force were killed serving a warrant on a man for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Four Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers were wounded.