Mary Gay Scanlon is another member of the exceptional class of 2018, a group that brought energy, enthusiasm and skill to the House Democratic Caucus. Like Lauren Underwood, Mike Levin, Sharice Davids, Lucy McBath, and Sean Casten, she took a Republican seat and has held it through three subsequent elections. She represents Pennsylvania’s 5th Congressional District.
Mary Gay Scanlon’s family has a long history of activist legal involvement. Her maternal grandfather was a family-court judge who helped write the first juvenile justice code for New York State. Her paternal grandfather worked on the commission that built a bridge across the St Lawrence River. And, her father served in the Kennedy White House and worked on Robert Kennedy’s Senate and Presidential campaigns. (www.law.upenn.edu/…). She followed in their footsteps by graduating from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law.
In 1985, at the age of 26, she represented a sexually abused 11 year old girl in a dependency case. The girl, removed from her home after teachers discovered that her step father was abusing her, was described as “mute, terrified and traumatized”. (www.law.upenn.edu/...) Mary Gay Scanlon gained her trust and helped the girl through the legal system, ensuring she had the support and stability she needed. The girl later achieved her GED and became a mother of three. They remain in touch. (www.law.upenn.edu/...)
This experience led her to pursue a focus on public interest law. (en.wikipedia.org/...). She became an attorney for the Education Law Center of Philadelphia, where she helped implement special education laws, before becoming the executive director of the Pro Bono Program at Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll. Her role included matching lawyers in this large firm with pro bono cases that matched their skills. www.law.upenn.edu/...
Mary Gay Scanlon is a strong advocate for the pro bono system. She understood that those without sufficient funds still need access to legal representation, especially those like the girl whom she helped to navigate the Pennsylvania foster care system. In an interview conducted with the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law in 2009, she declared, “Pro bono work is a basic part of being a lawyer, something you do as part of the profession. We have an obligation to share. Our system doesn’t work if people don’t have access, if they don’t have lawyers. I’ve been very fortunate in my life and in my career, and a lot of people haven’t been that lucky.” www.law.upenn.edu/...
Her pro bono work resulted in her receiving the Fidelity Award, the Philadelphia Bar Association’s highest honor for public service, in 1994. www.law.upenn.edu/...
In 2007, she entered politics with an election to her local school board, serving as its president from 2009 to 2011. While serving on the School Board she also served as the co-chair of the Voting Rights Task Force of the Association of Pro Bono Counsel. scanlon.house.gov
As noted, she entered the House in 2018. As a member of the House, Gay Scanlon, like many of that 2018 class, has focused on legislation to improve the lives of the American people. As of the end of 2024, she had sponsored 51 bills and 38 resolutions. en.wikipedia.org/...
According to her website, her legislative priorities include, “voting rights, access to justice, education, supporting economic growth for her region, common sense gun safety, women's rights, and ending hunger”. scanlon.house.gov/…
Mary Gay Scanlon is a member of the Equality Caucus, the House Progressive Caucus, and the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth.
She is also a member of the House Judiciary Committee and the House Rules Committee.
I had not really heard anything about Mary Gay Scanlon until seeing her during the 20 hour Rules Committee hearing a week ago. Her performance during that hearing, and that of fellow members Jim McGovern, Joe Neguse and Teresa Leger Fernandez, were to a person exceptional.
So, how has Mary Gay Scanlon fought back since the ascension of the Trump regime? Let’s look.
Given her activist law history, it is no surprise that she has fought against the Trump regime’s corrupt attacks on law firms, and criticized the acquiescence of law firms who signed agreements with Trump.
She contrasted her own work as a pro bono attorney with what these law firms signed up for in their deals with Trump.
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Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon: law firms’ willingness to dedicate top legal talent to the costly and time-consuming work of upholding Americans’ rights is critical. This administration’s efforts to undermine that fly in the face of many past presidents including JFK who called on the private bar to help
— Doug Lindner (@douglindner.bsky.social) 2025-04-07T21:05:27.114Z
When the Republicans, at their sycophantic worst, brought up a bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico, she was blunt when attacking it.
As a lawyer, Mary Gay Scanlon helped a young woman from Guinea who had sickle-cell disease obtain permanent residency. She has consistently, as both a lawyer and as a member of the House, fought for the rights of immigrants. The Trump regimes’ abuse of the law to deport citizens has been a target of her work in the House.
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“This maneuver evokes the Alien and Sedition Acts and McCarthyism. It is the playbook of authoritarians, not of elected officials in a democratic society who claim to be champions of free speech.”
Kudos to my Congress member, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, for writing this www.inquirer.com/politics/mah...
— Will Bunch (@willbunch.bsky.social) 2025-03-13T08:47:51.648Z
She recognizes the need to be in the community, speaking to members of her district and speaking at protests, as part and parcel of the fight against Trump.
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How have things changed for kids in the last decade? Join us on our new date - Feb 21st - to find out. We're honored to have Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, Dr. Monica Taylor & Dan McGarry from Upper Darby School District as part of the discussion. bit.ly/40KzoaQ.
#childwelfare #childhealth #education
— Children First (@childrenfirstpa.bsky.social) 2025-02-11T14:55:46.637Z
And she was brilliant at breaking down and highlighting every disaster in Trump’s Big Dumb Bill during the House Rules Committee Hearing.
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Here is Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon warning yesterday in the Rules Committee that, "regardless of one's party affiliation, we should all be wary of giving any president an authority like the one that is proposed in this bill. It's an authority ripe for abuse": www.youtube.com/live/vXWKt20...
— David A. Weinberg (@davidaweinberg.bsky.social) 2024-11-19T17:21:47.514Z
I write these profiles because it is important for readers of this site to know that the vast majority of Democrats are committed to fighting back against Trump. I don’t have an issue with individual Democrats being criticized, but when day after day we see multiple stories on perceived Democratic failures, and hardly any stories on Democratic successes, a bias in the community forms. And it is not a bias that leads to the enthusiasm and determination needed to fight against Trump.
We often hear that, “only this person is fighting back” when the fact is most Democrats are working hard to push back against Trump’s ongoing descent into fascism. It is important that we promote and advertise those that are. But their stories aren’t being told here, either by paid writers or community commenters. Mary Gay Scanlon has fought against Trump in the courts, in the House of Representatives, at protests, in town halls and through social media. Yet her work is rarely spoken of on this site.
If you want even more information on how Democrats are attacking this illegal and corrupt administration, go seek out Janesaunts diaries “Dems Doing What We Want them to do”, which is published three times a week, and lpeacocks Thursday diaries on the Congressional Black Caucus.
T2 has also just begun a series called the Rainbow Roundup, where focus is placed on LGBTQ lawmakers and journalists. And Billboteach has one focusing on Hispanic elected Democrats.
You can gain easy access to all these diaries by following the Democratic Party Spotlight, where all these diaries can be found www.dailykos.com/...
