RGB Anniversary of the Bill of Rights
Channel: chaotikmnemonic
Date: 2020-03-05

Below, and in this video, are remarks of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the New-York Historical Society on April 10, 2018, welcoming soon-to-be-citizens to the US at a naturalization ceremony.

"Newcomers to our shore, people like you, came here from the earliest days of our nation to today, seeking liberty, freedom from oppression, freedom from want, freedom to be you and me. I would like to convey to you finally how a great American jurist, Judge Learned Hand, understood the word Liberty. He explained in 1944 what liberty meant to him when he greeted a large assemblage of new Americans gathered in Central Park to swear allegiance to the United States. These are Judge Hand’s words:

'Just what is this sacred liberty that must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias.'

May the spirit of liberty, as Judge Hand explained, be your beacon. May you have the conscience and the courage to act in accord with that ideal as you play your part in helping to achieve a more perfect union."