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DUTIES 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. The men and women of the Marshals Service are responsible for 55.2 percent of arrests of federal Fugitive s. In 2003, U.S. marshals captured over 34,000 federal fugitives and assisted in the capture of over 27,000 state or local fugitives. ORGANIZATION The United States Marshals Service is based in , who is assisted by a Deputy Director. USMS Headquarters provides command, control and cooperation for the disparate elements of the service.
The U.S. court system is divided into 94 Districts. Each of the districts has a U.S. Marshal, a Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal (GS-15), Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshals, and as many Deputy and Special Deputy U.S. Marshals as needed. The Director and each United States Marshal is appointed by the President Of The United States and subject to confirmation by the United States Senate . The District U.S. Marshal is traditionally appointed from a list of qualified Law Enforcement personnel for that district or state. Each state has at least one district, while several larger states have three or more. Deputy U.S. Marshals are classified as either General Schedule (GS) 1811 (Criminal Investigator Deputy) or 0082 (Deputy). The 1811 Deputies receive an additional 25% LEAP pay on top of their base pay, and may progress to the grade of GS-12. The 0082 Deputies do not receive this 25% pay raise, but have much the same duties. Additionally, 0082 Deputies may only progress to the grade of GS-11. Due to budget cutbacks, the U.S. Marshals Service only hires 0082 Deputy U.S. Marshals. Any 0082 Deputies wishing to become 1811 Deputies must do so by applying internally. In recent years, the Marshals Service promoted about 48 1811 Deputies each year, out of an 0082 Deputy applicant pool numbering in the hundreds. HISTORY The offices of U.S. Marshals and Deputy Marshals were created by the first Congress in the Judiciary Act Of 1789 , the same legislation that established the federal judicial system. In a letter to Edmund Randolph , the first Attorney General Of The United States , President George Washington wrote, ''Impressed with a conviction that the due administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good Government, I have considered the first arrangement of the Judicial department as essential to the happiness of our Country, and to the stability of its political system; hence the selection of the fittest characters to expound the law, and dispense justice, has been an invariable object of my anxious concern.'' Many of the first U.S. Marshals had already proven themselves in military service during the American Revolution . Among the first marshals was Congressman William Stephens Smith for the district of New York. From the earliest days of the nation, 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 authorised to swear in a Posse to assist them in manhunts and other duties on an ''ad hoc'' basis. 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. The Marshals and their Deputies served Subpoena s, Summons es, Writ s, Warrants , and other process issued by the courts, made all the arrests, and handled 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. When 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 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 decade through 1870 . They distributed Presidential Proclamation s, 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,the President and Governors have 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 at times during the Cold War , swapping spies with the Soviet Union , and also retrieving North Carolina's copy of the Bill Of Rights . Particularly in the American West, individual Deputy Marshals have been seen as legendary heroes in the face of rampant lawlessness (see Famous Marshals, below). Marshals arrested the infamous Dalton Gang in 1893, helped suppress the Pullman Strike in 1894, enforced Prohibition during the 1920s, and have protected American athletes at recent Olympic Games . Marshals protected the Refugee boy Elian Gonzalez before his return to Cuba in 2000, and have protected Abortion clinics as required by Federal law. Since 1989, the Marshals Service has been responsible for law enforcement among U.S. personnel in Antarctica , although they are not routinely assigned there. {Link without Title} One of the more onerous jobs the Marshals were tasked with was the recovery of fugitive Slaves , as required by the Fugitive Slave Act Of 1850 . 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. The Oberlin-Wellington Rescue was a celebrated fugitive-slave case involving U.S. marshals. James Batchelder was the second marshal killed in the line of duty. Batchelder, along with others, was preventing the rescue of fugitive slave Anthony Burns in Boston in 1854. 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, requiring President Kennedy to federalize the Mississippi National Guard to pacify the crowd, but the marshals stood their ground, and Meredith successfully registered. Marshals provided continuous protection to Meredith during his first year at "Ole Miss," and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy later proudly displayed a marshal's dented helmet in his office. U.S. Marshals also protected black schoolchildren 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 U.S. marshals in 1964. 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. district 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. More than 200 U.S. marshals and deputy marshals have been slain in the line of duty since Marshal was shot dead by a man in Augusta, Georgia on whom he was attempting to serve court papers, on January 11 , 1794 . They are remembered on an Honor Roll permanently displayed at Headquarters. FAMOUS MARSHALS Some famous or otherwise noteworthy U.S. Marshals include:
FICTIONAL MARSHALS
SEE ALSO U.S. MARSHALS IN MOVIES
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