§561 — Title 28 Judiciary and Judicial Procedure | U.S. Code

Summary

Creates the United States Marshals Service inside the Department of Justice and puts a Director in charge. The President picks the Director and the Senate must approve that pick. The Director does the duties in this law and any other tasks the Attorney General gives. The President also picks a U.S. marshal for each federal judicial district and for the D.C. Superior Court; those marshals are part of the Service and follow the Director. Each marshal serves a four-year term and must keep working after the term ends until a successor is appointed and qualified unless the marshal resigns or is removed. The Director decides where each marshal’s offices are and generally requires marshals to live in their district, except the D.C. marshals and the Southern District of New York marshal may live within 20 miles, and a marshal for the Northern Mariana Islands who also serves another district may live in that other district. The Director can hire employees, set their pay, and name some as law enforcement officers under civil service rules. The Director runs and supervises the Service, may give oaths to its officials and employees without charging a fee, and each marshal should have at least 4 years of command-level law enforcement management, experience working with other agencies, some college-level schooling, and experience with courts or protecting court staff, jurors, or witnesses.

Title 28, §561

Judiciary and Judicial Procedure — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)There is hereby established a United States Marshals Service as a bureau within the Department of Justice under the authority and direction of the Attorney General. There shall be at the head of the United States Marshals Service (hereafter in this chapter referred to as the “Service”) a Director who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

(b)The Director of the United States Marshals Service (hereafter in this chapter referred to as the “Director”) shall, in addition to the powers and duties set forth in this chapter, exercise such other functions as may be delegated by the Attorney General.

(c)The President shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a United States marshal for each judicial district of the United States and for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, except that any marshal appointed for the Northern Mariana Islands may at the same time serve as marshal in another judicial district. Each United States marshal shall be an official of the Service and shall serve under the direction of the Director.

(d)Each marshal shall be appointed for a term of four years. A marshal shall, unless that marshal has resigned or been removed by the President, continue to perform the duties of that office after the end of that 4-year term until a successor is appointed and qualifies.

(e)The Director shall designate places within a judicial district for the official station and offices of each marshal. Each marshal shall reside within the district for which such marshal is appointed, except that—

(1)the marshal for the District of Columbia, for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, and for the Southern District of New York may reside within 20 miles of the district for which the marshal is appointed; and

(2)any marshal appointed for the Northern Mariana Islands who at the same time is serving as marshal in another district may reside in such other district.

(f)The Director is authorized to appoint and fix the compensation of such employees as are necessary to carry out the powers and duties of the Service and may designate such employees as law enforcement officers in accordance with such policies and procedures as the Director shall establish pursuant to the applicable provisions of title 5 and regulations issued thereunder.

(g)The Director shall supervise and direct the United States Marshals Service in the performance of its duties.

(h)The Director may administer oaths and may take affirmations of officials and employees of the Service, but shall not demand or accept any fee or compensation therefor.

(i)Each marshal appointed under this section should have—

(1)a minimum of 4 years of command-level law enforcement management duties, including personnel, budget, and accountable property issues, in a police department, sheriff’s office or Federal law enforcement agency;

(2)experience in coordinating with other law enforcement agencies, particularly at the State and local level;

(3)college-level academic experience; and

(4)experience in or with county, State, and Federal court systems or experience with protection of court personnel, jurors, and witnesses.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Prior Provisions

A prior section 561, added Pub. L. 89–554, § 4(c), Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 619; amended Pub. L. 95–530, § 2, Oct. 27, 1978, 92 Stat. 2028, related to appointment, term, and residence of United States marshals, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 100–690, § 7608(a)(1).

Amendments

2006—Subsec. (i). Pub. L. 109–177 added subsec. (i). 2002—Subsec. (i). Pub. L. 107–273 struck out subsec. (i) which read as follows: “There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out the functions of the Service.”

§561 United States Marshals Service