CREW urges the Judicial Conference to address the independence of the U.S. Marshals Service

The Judicial Conference should use its September 2025 meeting to address the role of the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) in preserving judicial independence, CREW urges in a letter to Chief Justice Roberts and members of the Judicial Conference of the United States.

The USMS’s primary role is to “provide for the security” and to “obey, execute, and enforce all orders of” federal courts other than the Supreme Court. To execute this mission, USMS provides protective details for and assesses threats against judges, manages the custody of prisoners and protects witnesses, jurors, prosecutors and others who enter federal courthouses. Although its primary responsibility lies in the judiciary, since USMS is housed within the Department of Justice, its director serves under the authority of the attorney general. This means there is a conflict that can strain judicial independence when it comes to both judicial security and court order compliance. 

Today, judicial security is especially a point of concern, with the number of threats against judges having tripled in the past decade, and leaving federal judges dependent on the executive branch to meet their security needs is fraught. The executive branch has the ability to abuse its power to withdraw USMS judicial protection from judges, and that fear has the potential to impact judges from making the legally appropriate ruling in a given case.

Correspondingly, court order compliance is a growing issue for the judiciary, which raises concerns because judicial independence is dependent on other branches enforcing court rulings. The threat of executive branch noncompliance is also exacerbated by USMS,whose responsibility it is to execute and enforce lower court orders, being accountable to the attorney general. Although this issue has not arisen yet, a chief executive could theoretically direct USMS not to enforce certain court orders, setting up a potential constitutional confrontation.

USMS’s current placement within the executive branch raises concerns for judicial independence. The Judicial Conference, in its September 2025 meeting, should take steps to address the role of the U.S. Marshals Service, and discuss the possibility of the judiciary having control over judicial security and court order compliance in order to maintain independence. 

Photo of U.S. Marshals by Bennie J. Davis III under Creative Commons license