# Sergeant at Arms **Status: stub — expand.** Each chamber of Congress elects a **Sergeant at Arms** as one of its own officers. The office is chiefly known for its ceremonial and security functions — maintaining order on the floor, managing chamber operations, and sharing responsibility for Capitol security — but its constitutional significance is narrower and older than either. The Sergeant at Arms is **the enforcement arm of the inherent contempt power**: the officer who, on the order of the chamber, arrests a person who has defied its process and brings that person to the bar of the house. [[Anderson v. Dunn]] established the power in 1821, [[McGrain v. Daugherty]] reaffirmed it in 1927 against a Senate deputy sergeant at arms' arrest, and [[Jurney v. MacCracken]] in 1935 is the last time either chamber actually used it. That makes this office the single point on which the one subpoena-enforcement route **not** running through the executive branch depends — and the reason that route is discussed far more often than it is attempted. The arrest would be made by a legislative officer, the detention would be in legislative custody, and nothing about it would require a U.S. Attorney's agreement. ## See also - [[Congressional Subpoena Enforcement Flow]] · [[Anderson v. Dunn]] · [[Jurney v. MacCracken]] · [[Congressional Oversight]] · [[Congress Hub]]