About

My name is Amanda Scott Daigle, and I’m a paralegal and writer based in the Washington, DC metro area, with a focus on advancing social and economic justice.

In 2019, I joined the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project in Washington, DC, where I work on voting rights, redistricting and census cases, often representing historically disenfranchised communities of color, public assistance clients, and disabled voters. I have had the opportunity to be the lead paralegal on two U.S. Supreme Court cases, Allen v. Milligan challenging Alabama’s congressional maps for racial gerrymandering, and Trump v. New York opposing the Trump administration’s efforts to exclude undocumented immigrants from congressional apportionment. I also helped our team protect the right to vote by mail during the 2020 elections, winning 28 legal victories in 21 states and Puerto Rico.

From 2018 to 2021, I served on the Montgomery County Committee Against Hate/Violence, which works to address hate crimes and bias incidents against minority groups through community education, advocacy and legislation. My writing has been published in The Washington Post, AL.com, and The Montgomery Advertiser.

I was born and raised in a working-class family in Mobile, Alabama, and I am the first and only college graduate in my family. Homeschooled and self-taught, I earned my GED, graduated summa cum laude from Coastal Alabama Community College with my associate’s degree in paralegal studies, and then received a full scholarship to transfer to Georgetown University where I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in government and history.

At Georgetown, I studied American government and history, and I had the opportunity to do a senior independent study with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Dr. Marcia Chatelain on criminal disenfranchisement laws and systemic racism in the United States. I interned for the Washington, DC Mayor’s Office, the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. In my junior year, I won the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, a competitive national scholarship for college students planning to go to graduate school and pursue careers in public service. As a senior, I penned my first national op-ed, “We have a right to counsel in criminal cases. Why not in evictions?” for The Washington Post, published on November 6, 2018, both in print and online.

While in Alabama, I founded Mobile Equality, a community organization advocating for the local lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community. We lobbied for a city nondiscrimination ordinance, amending the state’s hate crime law, and protecting and investing in LGBTQ youth. I interned for Legal Services Alabama, the South Alabama Center for Fair Housing, and U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne (R-AL01). I also served on the Board of Directors of the ACLU of Alabama from 2014 to 2016, where I had the distinction of being the youngest person elected to the board.

I plan to go to law school and pursue a career as a public interest attorney, and one day I hope to run for public office. I live in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland with my husband Peter and our cat Jack. In my free time, I enjoy reading, film photography, and exploring the Washington, DC metro area, especially Montgomery County, MD.


Publications

“We have a right to counsel in criminal cases. Why not in evictions?”, The Washington Post, November 6, 2018


Education

  • Georgetown University, Class of 2019
    • Bachelor of Arts, Government and History
    • Honors & Awards: Harry S. Truman Scholarship, Senior Convocation Speaker, New Student Convocation Speaker, George Wescott Carey Scholarship, 1789 Scholarship, Dean’s List
  • Coastal Alabama Community College, Class of 2016
    • Associate of Applied Science, Paralegal Studies, summa cum laude
    • Honors & Awards: Paralegal Award For Outstanding Scholarship, Phi Theta Kappa, President’s List

Work Experience


Boards & Committees


Volunteer Activities

*Political campaign experience excluded


Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.