The Marshals Service serves as the enforcement and security arm of the U.S. federal judiciary, and it is an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice and operates under the direction of the U.S. Attorney General.

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.

The high importance of the Judicial System in our National Government made it an indispensable duty to select such Characters to fill the several offices in it as would discharge their respective trust with honor to themselves and advantage to their Country.

The largest part of the business was paper work—serving writs (e.g., subpoenas, summonses, warrants), and other processes issued by the courts, making arrests and handling all federal prisoners.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

[15][16] 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.

[21][22][23] Marshals have protected American athletes at Olympic Games,[24] the refugee boy Elián González before his return to Cuba in 2000,[25] and abortion clinics[26][27] as required by federal law.

SNSSO Senior Inspectors have also staffed National Security Special Events (NSSE) with their state, local and other federal partners on a regular basis.

[30] In 2006, the Sex Offenders Investigations Branch (SOIB) was formed on July 27 with the passage of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act (AWA).

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.

These offenders tend to be career criminals with histories of violence or whose instant offense(s) pose a significant threat to public safety.

[44] The Wall Street Journal reported on November 14, 2014, that the Marshals Service's Technical Operations Group utilizes a so-called dirtbox to track fugitives.

OPO provides subject matter expertise, guidance, and direct action support to district offices on high-threat/-profile proceedings and risk-/threat-based protective operations.

Currently, the OPO is responsible for two permanent risk-based protection details for the Deputy Attorney General (DAG) and the Secretary of Education (SecEd), respectively.

Typically fewer than five percent of qualified applicants are hired [citation needed] and must possess at a minimum a four-year bachelor's degree or competitive work experience (which is usually three or more years at a local or state police department).

[60] Deputy Marshals are also equipped with body armor and collapsible batons for daily use, and ballistic shields, helmets, and protective goggles for serving high risk warrants.

Marshals Service has planes registered under a front company named Early Detection Alarm Systems, which has an address of a UPS Store mailbox in Spring, Texas.

It is also presumed to include an IMSI-catcher such as the Stingray phone tracker or the Boeing DRTbox (Dirtbox), which are used by the Marshals' Technical Operations Group.

[citation needed] Deputy Marshals assigned to the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) department within the USMS also hold the title of Senior Inspector.

The OIG noted that in February 2009, several courthouses failed to detect mock explosives sent by Marshals Service Headquarters in order to test security procedures.

Marshal John Thomas Ambrose was charged with theft of Justice Department property, disclosure of confidential information, and lying to federal agents during an investigation.

[82] A federal jury convicted Ambrose on April 27, 2009, of leaking secret government information concerning Calabrese to William Guide, a family friend and former Chicago police officer who had also served time in prison for corruption.

Marshal Matthew Fogg won a landmark EEO and Title VII racial discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against the Justice Department, for which he was awarded $4 million.

The jury found the entire Marshals Service to be a "racially hostile environment" which discriminates against black employees in its promotion practices.

His body was taken to a small building for more than a week and an autopsy was unable to determine entry and exit wounds (see Idaho Federal Court Transcripts for clarification of this incident).