For professional marshals
MOST ARMS of government have made impressive efforts since 9/11 to improve the security of vulnerable targets. One glaring exception is protection of the federal courts, which has rested in the hands of regional US marshals whose appointments have been treated as political plums.
That should begin to change with the adoption of an amendment by Senator Edward Kennedy to a homeland security bill last year that at least sets professional standards for appointees. The immediate challenge now is to make sure the White House and other elected officials involved in picking marshals comply with the terms of the Kennedy amendment. For the long term, Congress should let the Marshals Service itself choose its regional heads, much as other federal law enforcement agencies do and as Kennedy has proposed in the past.
The need for standards became abundantly clear when then-Governor Paul Cellucci proposed for the job Anthony Dichio, a state trooper who had been a member of the governor's personal security detail. All but one member of the state's congressional delegation opposed Dichio as unqualified. But under the tradition of letting state politicians of the president's party use the position as patronage, Dichio got the job. President Bush fired him in 2005 after a Justice Department inquiry confirmed Globe articles showing he was spending little time on the job and used his government vehicle for personal errands.
Bush and the state's Republican leaders will be put to the test now as they consider candidates to succeed Dichio. One name that has been mentioned is Reed Hillman, a 25-year State Police veteran with three years as State Police commander. An attorney, he was also a state representative for almost six years and the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor last year.
While Hillman is far more qualified than Dichio was, it is questionable whether he meets the requirements in the Kennedy amendment. Among these are "a minimum of four years of command-level law enforcement management duties" and "experience in or with county, state, and federal court systems or experience with protection of court personnel, jurors, and witnesses."
The threat to judges and court personnel is not just from Islamic terrorists. Speaking before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, Kennedy noted that two Supreme Court justices have received death threats and that the husband and mother of a federal judge in Chicago were murdered in connection with a case the judge presided over.
Federal Judge William Young of Boston recently decried the politicized appointments of marshals, noting that it was unimaginable that regional heads of the FBI or the Drug Enforcement Agency would be chosen this way. Young is right. It is past time for professionalism to replace politics in the Marshals Service.
