18 U.S.C. § 3602
Section 3602 · Appointment of probation officers
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 49 court decisions — leading case United States Department of Justice v. Julian (1988)
Most recently applied in United States v. Tinney (June 2021)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) Appointment.—A district court of the United States shall appoint qualified persons to serve, with or without compensation, as probation officers within the jurisdiction and under the direction of the court making the appointment. A person appointed as a probation officer in one district may serve in another district with the consent of the appointing court and the court in the other district. The appointing court may, for cause, remove a probation officer appointed to serve with compensation, and may, in its discretion, remove a probation officer appointed to serve without compensation.
(b) Record of Appointment.—The order of appointment shall be entered on the records of the court, a copy of the order shall be delivered to the officer appointed, and a copy shall be sent to the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.
(c) Chief Probation Officer.—If the court appoints more than one probation officer, one may be designated by the court as chief probation officer and shall direct the work of all probation officers serving in the judicial district.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
2015—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 114–113 inserted "A person appointed as a probation officer in one district may serve in another district with the consent of the appointing court and the court in the other district." after first sentence and "appointing" before "court may, for cause, remove".
Effective Date
Section effective Nov. 1, 1987, and applicable only to offenses committed after the taking effect of this section, see section 235(a)(1) of Pub. L. 98–473, set out as a note under section 3551 of this title.