Councilmember Mary Cheh is committed to good government, environmental protection, education reform, protecting and improving the anchors of our community, and serving her constituent neighbors in Ward 3 and throughout the District. Councilmember Cheh is serving in the fourth year of her first term as the Councilmember from Ward 3.

During the first two years of her term, Councilmember Cheh Chaired the Committee on Public Services and Consumer Affairs and passed several pieces of legislation focused on consumer and environmental protection. For example, the "Payday Loan Consumer Protection Act of 2007" banned predatory "payday" lenders from operating in the District of Columbia.  Councilmember Cheh's "Clean and Affordable Energy Act of 2008" is a landmark energy law that establishes a sustainable energy utility that will be charged with reducing the District's energy use, especially during times of peak demand when electricity generation is the most expensive and most polluting.

In 2009, Councilmember Cheh took over the Committee on Government Operations and the Environment. In that role, Councilmember Cheh has worked to improve the transparency and accountability of the District government while continuing her efforts to protect the environment.  The "Omnibus Election Reform Act of 2009" eliminates many of the hurdles that voters face and provides voters with adequate assurances that their votes are properly counted. The primary goal is to ensure that any eligible person who wants to participate in District elections can do so through early voting, no-excuse absentee voting, and same-day registration. Recently, she introduced the “Human and Environmental Health Protection Act of 2009” which places restrictions on a number of dangerous chemicals.

As well as serving on the Council, Councilmember Cheh is a tenured law professor at George Washington University, with professional experience working with the D.C. Council, the D.C. Courts, and local, national, and international institutions of justice. She is a member and former chair of the GW Law Public Interest Committee, which assists students in providing legal services to the underserved, and she works with students on community and environmental pro bono projects. Ms. Cheh joined the GW Law School faculty in 1979 after being in private practice with Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Kampelman in Washington, D.C. and serving as a law clerk to the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. She is the Elyce Zenoff Research Professor of Law and teaches and writes primarily in the areas of constitutional law and criminal procedure. Councilmember Cheh has been honored by the University with an Award for Community Service and with a teaching award from the Law Association for Women.

Her work before and on the Council has proven Councilmember Cheh to be a common-sense investigator with a firm belief in the power of oversight and accountability. She has a record of providing real solutions and making government and institutions work better. At the request of former Councilmember Kathy Patterson, Councilmember Cheh served as pro bono special counsel to the Council of the District of Columbia’s Judiciary Committee during its 2003 investigation into police handling of protests and demonstrations. The report drafted as a result of her work led to model legislation that protects citizen’s rights and provides police officers with clear guidelines.  Once on the Council, Chairman Gray asked Councilmember Cheh to lead an investigation into the flaws in the 2008 District election leading to election form efforts.  Mary has also worked on international law reform projects in countries such as Tajikistan, Bosnia, and Kosovo.

Councilmember Cheh has served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C.; worked pro bono for the Centre for Applied Legal Studies in South Africa; served as a consultant to the National Institute of Justice and the President’s Commission on Organized Crime; chaired the subcommittee on criminal justice for the D.C. Circuit Court’s Task Force on Gender; and has served as a member of the Rules Committee of the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and on the Board of Directors of the National Institute of Military Justice. A former member of the ACLU Board and current Vice-Chair of the ACLU Screening Committee, Councilmember Cheh is an avid defender of civil liberties. She is also a Founder and Co-Director of the Animal Welfare Project, which worked with community leaders, activists, and government officials to craft model animal welfare legislation.  As a Councilmember, she was able to enact her own model animal welfare legislation into law.  Councilmember Cheh also founded Project Re-Entry, a pro bono law reform project that aims to reduce recidivism and assist ex-offenders in their return to productive lives.

Councilmember Cheh is a long-time resident of Ward 3, with deep roots in the community. She and her husband, Neil Lewis, a former journalist, moved to Washington in the late 1970s. In 1986 they moved from Cleveland Park to their current home in Forest Hills. Mary and Neil’s two daughters, Jane and Nora Lewis, were born and raised here, both attending Murch Elementary and Georgetown Day School. Mary is a former member of the Murch after-school board, a Stoddert soccer coach (and a licensed referee), and member of the Stoddert Board. For many years, Mary has taught units on constitutional law and “street law” to students in local schools. Councilmember Cheh is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Douglass College and holds law degrees from Rutgers University and Harvard Law School. She is admitted to practice in D.C., New Jersey, Massachusetts, and before federal courts.