Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (2015). Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi/ ALM

While the national debate over immigration swirled, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently presided over a citizenship ceremony in which she told the new citizens that America was made strong “by people like you who traveled long distances, overcame great obstacles, and made tremendous sacrifices—all to provide a better life for themselves and their families.”

Ginsburg administered the citizenship oath in a ceremony at the New York Historical Society, and the Supreme Court on Tuesday posted her full comments to a page that is dedicated to speeches. The addition of Ginsburg's remarks was the first new item added in about two years.

In the last six years, only Ginsburg and retired Justice John Paul Stevens have made their speeches available on the court's website. In 2011, Justice Stephen Breyer's comments at the Holocaust Memorial Museum National Days of Remembrance on May 17 of that year were posted the same day. The first entry on the site is May 2000—remarks from then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist about the founding of the Norfolk and Portsmouth Bar Association.

That those three justices make their speeches available is not surprising. Ginsburg, Breyer and, when he was on the court, Stevens, are also the only justices who provide same-day copies of their public statements when they read summaries of their opinions from the bench.

Of the current justices, only Justice Anthony Kennedy also has made a speech available on the court's website—15 years ago—at the American Bar Association annual meeting in 2003.

Although several justices, such as Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas, make regular appearances at law schools and bar conferences, they often don't make formal remarks. If those appearances are not videotaped or live-streamed, there is no verbatim record of what they said. There was some press coverage of Ginsburg's remarks last month at the citizenship ceremony.

But there are riches to be mined when they do provide their formal remarks. The nation's newest citizens on April 10 learned what they had in common with a Supreme Court justice—the daughter and granddaughter of immigrants—and her understanding of liberty.

We've posted the full speech below:

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