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What happens if those charged with enforcing judicial orders won't? (US, federal) Question
Under the US federal government structure, the judicial, executive, and legislative branches are supposed to act as checks on each other (balance of power). While judges make rulings, enforcement of those rulings is under the executive branch (the US Marshall office).
What remedies within the existing laws are available to a judge if the US Marshall, under direction of the president, declines to enforce a ruling against the executive branch?
1 answer
While no court has tried it, yet, Federal Rules of Procedure 4.1 says that the courts direct enforcement through...
...a United States marshal or deputy marshal or by a person specially appointed for that purpose.
The last of the three options, "a person specially appointed," does most of the work, here.
Rule 4.1 does exclude subpoenas and summonses as handled through different rules, but the former has similar language about a non-executive appointee, and the latter describes enforcement as anybody "at least 18 years old and not a party" to the case, indicating that the courts haven't used the Marshals for the purpose at all in a long time.
In Young v. U.S. Ex Rel. Vuitton et Fils S.A. (1987), the Supreme Court even called that out, noting in a quote that...
If a party can make himself a judge of the validity of orders which have been issued, and by his own act of disobedience set them aside, then are the courts impotent, and what the Constitution now fittingly calls 'the judicial power of the United States' would be a mere mockery.
At least two members of the 2025 Supreme Court might disagree if it came up, but it seems fairly explicit that, if the Department of Justice refuses to enforce a ruling, or if the courts don't believe that they can trust the Marshals to enforce it, then they can empower anybody available to do the job for them.
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