U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Deliver Remarks at Naturalization Ceremony December 14
Media Alert · Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Washington, DC

To celebrate Bill of Rights Day (Dec. 15), 31 candidates from 26 nations will be sworn in as new U.S. citizens in front of the original “Charters of Freedom” (The Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights) in the Rotunda of the National Archives Museum. The ceremony will take place on Friday, December 14, at 10 a.m.

NOTE TO MEDIA: The press is invited to cover the ceremony.  However, space is extremely limited and only a certain number of media can be approved.  RSVP to public.affairs@nara.gov. Accredited and approved media representatives should use the Constitution Avenue special events entrance, at 7th Street, NW, and set up by 9:45 a.m., as the ceremony begins promptly at 10 a.m.

This year marks the 227th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights. See our National Archives News Bill of Rights Day page for related programs and online resources.

The ceremony will include a welcome from Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero and remarks from the Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and L. Francis Cissna, Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

The Honorable Beryl A. Howell, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, will administer the Oath of Allegiance to the petitioners for United States citizenship. The new citizens are from 26 nations: China, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Georgia, India, Israel, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, South Korea, Sudan, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, and Venezuela.       

The Use of Flash and Additional Lights is Prohibited in the Rotunda.

The National Archives Museum in the National Archives Building is located at Constitution Ave. and 7th Street, NW, in Washington. Metro accessible on the Yellow and Green lines, Archives/Navy Memorial/Penn Quarter station.

This program is presented in partnership with the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the Department of Homeland Security U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Please note: due to the ceremony, the Rotunda and the National Archives Museum will open to the public at 11:30 a.m. and remain open until 5:30 p.m. Regular hours of 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m. resume on Dec. 15.

Follow the ceremony using the hashtag #newUScitizen!

Bill of Rights Day commemorates the ratification of the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution on December 15, 1791. In President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 proclamation, he asked that December 15 be “set apart as a day of mobilization for freedom and for human rights, a day of remembrance of the democratic and peaceful action by which these rights were gained, a day of reassessment of their present meaning and their living worth.”  For 227 years, this landmark document has guaranteed our freedoms of religion, speech, the press, assembly, and the right to petition the Government for redress of grievances.