Democrats move to wall off Trump admin from Marshals Service amid threats to judges [View all]
Source: Courthouse News Service
May 22, 2025
WASHINGTON (CN) — Congressional Democrats are eyeing transformative legislation that would strip control of the U.S. Marshals Service from the White House and the Justice Department, as lawmakers sound the alarm about potential conflict between the courts and the Donald Trump administration. The bill, unveiled Thursday morning and obtained by Courthouse News, would rewrite federal law to reestablish the law enforcement agency under the authority of the federal judiciary, with a director and U.S. marshals appointed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court and an administrative board.
The Marshals Service — tasked with providing security for federal judges and courts — currently operates at the discretion of the attorney general. The bicameral group of Democrats behind the bill, which includes California Representative Eric Swalwell, Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and California Senator Alex Padilla, have argued that the Trump administration should not have authority over the Marshals Service while the president and his allies attack federal judges who have ruled against his agenda.
“The USMS, the nation’s oldest federal law enforcement agency, risks being ensnared in Trump’s efforts to upend our constitutional order,” the lawmakers said in a statement. Trump in recent months has stepped up attacks on judges who have issued rulings hamstringing a cascade of executive actions. The president said U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of Washington should be impeached after he issued an order halting mass deportations of Venezuelan migrants.
Other people in Trump’s orbit, including Vice President JD Vance, have suggested in passing that the White House could ignore rulings from federal courts and even the Supreme Court. Some lawmakers and legal experts have argued that the Trump administration is already flouting court rulings. The White House has so far failed to facilitate the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man the Supreme Court ruled had been wrongfully deported from Maryland and should be returned.
Read more: https://www.courthousenews.com/democrats-move-to-wall-off-trump-admin-from-marshals-service-amid-threats-to-judges/
House/Senate Democrats' PRESS RELEASE - Booker, Schumer, Padilla, Schiff, Raskin, Swalwell, and Johnson Introduce Bicameral Bill to Move US Marshals Service to Judicial Branch
Link to LEGISLATION (PDF) is here
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