Chief Judge Carol Bagley Amon is pleased to announce that Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto will preside at the naturalization ceremony to be held at the historic King Manor Museum, in celebration of Constitution Day.

Constitution Day and Citizenship Day is observed nationally each year on September 17, marking the date on which delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the nation’s founding document in 1787.  The highlight is the oath ceremony, during which immigrants swear their allegiance to the United States and receive their naturalization certificate.  This is the final step in becoming a U.S. citizen.  Those naturalized will be able to vote, serve on juries, apply for a U.S. passport, and enjoy all the other rights and privileges of U.S. citizens.

Federal judges naturalized more than 360,000 immigrants last year.  The Eastern District of New York is one of the most diverse districts in the United States, and is among the top three of the 94 districts in the number of new citizens naturalized each year.  In 2013, the Eastern District naturalized over sixty thousand new citizens at the Theodore Roosevelt Courthouse in Brooklyn and the Alfonse M. D’Amato Courthouse in Central Islip.

Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto is the second Asian Pacific American woman ever to serve as a federal district court judge.  Judge Matsumoto was nominated by President George W. Bush on March 11, 2008, and received her commission on July 22, 2008.  Judge Matsumoto is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.  Judge Matsumoto previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York from 1983 to 2004 and as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York from 2004 to 2008.

This naturalization ceremony will be held on Wednesday, September 17, 2014 at 11:00 a.m., at the historic King Manor Museum, located at 150-03 Jamaica Avenue, Jamaica, NY 11432.  King Manor was home to three generations of the King Family, including Rufus King (1755-1827) who was a distinguished figure in this nation’s early history.

King Manor is steeped in the history of our great country. From 1805 until his death in 1827, Rufus King resided in Jamaica, NY, which is now one of the most diverse neighborhoods in New York City. His contemporaries recognized him as one of the greatest statesmen of the era. King’s political career was only just beginning when he signed the Constitution in 1787. He subsequently became one of New York’s first two United States senators under the new Constitution, eventually serving four terms in the Senate. He also served as the ambassador to Great Britain from 1796 to 1803. Throughout his long political career, he was an outspoken opponent of slavery. After King’s death, his eldest son John Alsop King lived at King Manor and served as a United States congressman (1849-1851) and the Governor of New York (1857-1859), carrying on his father’s anti-slavery tradition.