RoseMarie Swanger

Political career

Swanger worked as a clerk in the mayor's office of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, from 1966 through 1972. She later worked as assistant city clerk from 1972 through 1974, and as city clerk for Lebanon from 1974 through 1984. She served as a county commissioner in Lebanon County from 1984 through 2004. Swanger won re-election in 2008, 2010, and 2012. In a letter to her Republican colleagues, Swanger claimed, "Increasingly, foreign laws and legal doctrines -- including and especially Shariah law -- are finding their way into U.S. court cases. Invoking Shariah law, especially in family law cases, is a means of imposing an agenda on the American people." Her bill, based upon a model written by anti-Sharia activist David Yerushalmi, was seen as "Islamophobic" and part of the wider anti-Sharia movement in the United States. In addition to Islamic leaders, Jewish and Catholic leaders questioned whether the bill would also compromise elements of their religious code and liberties. In response, the Pittsburgh City Council passed a unanimous resolution condemning HB 2029. Her reintroduction of the bill in 2014 was met with similar results.