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In God We Trust” — Why the National Motto Poses No Constitutional Crisis Prepared by the American Center for Law and Justice February 2006

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In God We Trust” — Why the National Motto Poses No Constitutional Crisis Prepared by the American Center for Law and Justice February 2006 “In God We Trust” — Why the National Motto Poses No Constitutional Crisis Prepared by the American Center for Law and Justice February 2006 The use of “In God We Trust” as the national motto of the United States is fully consistent with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The words of the motto echo the conviction held by the Founders of this Nation that our freedoms come from God. Congress codified “In God We Trust” as our national motto for the express purpose of reaffirming America’s unique history and understanding of this truth, and to distinguish America from atheistic nations who recognized no higher authority than the State at a time when the spread of Communism worldwide was on the rise. While the First Amendment affords atheists and all other Americans the freedom to believe or disbelieve on matters of religion, it does not compel federal courts or other public officials to strip religious references from every aspect of public life. The use of “In God We Trust” as our national motto is a common sense recognition of our nation’s longstanding religious heritage that poses no constitutional crisis. Use of the slogan “In God We Trust” dates back to the War of 1812. In September 1814, fearing for the fate of his country while watching the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Francis Scott Key composed the poem the “Star Spangled Banner,” of which one line is “And this be our motto—‘In God is our trust.’” During the Civil War, President Lincoln’s famed Gettysburg Address declared “that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address (Nov. 19, 1863). When Congress codified the longstanding motto in 1956, its purpose was patriotic inspiration: “It will be of great spiritual and psychological value to our country to have a clearly designated national motto of inspirational quality in plain, popularly accepted English.” House Report No. 84-1959; 36 U.S.C. § 186. 1 The national motto reflects the fact that our government, its Constitution, and its laws are founded on a belief in God. See generally County of Allegheny v. ACLU , 492 U.S. 573, 671-72 (1989) (Kennedy, J., dissenting). For example, the Mayflower Compact of 1620 contained several religious references, and the Declaration of Independence recognizes that human liberties are a gift from God by its statement that “[a]ll men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” The Drafters of the Declaration proclaimed that the right to “dissolve the political bands” connecting the American Colonies to England derived from Natural Law and “Nature’s God,” and they “appeal[ed] to the Supreme Judge of the world to rectify their intentions.” American Presidents have issued Thanksgiving Proclamations establishing national days of celebration and prayer since the nation’s Founding. President Washington’s proclamation, issued at the request of Congress, proclaimed that it is the “duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.” JARED SPARKS , XII THE WRITINGS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON T19 (1833-1837). Most of President Washington’s successors have followed suit, see 36 U.S.C. ' 169h, and the forthrightly religious nature of these proclamations as well as Presidential Inauguration ceremonies has not waned over the years. American courts and legislatures have also recognized our nation’s religious heritage. Federal courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States, open their sessions with the request that “God save the United States and this honorable Court.” The U.S. Congress has gone further by employing legislative chaplains and setting aside a special prayer room in the Capitol for use by its members. Likewise, “In God We Trust” is prominently engraved in the wall above the Speaker’s dais in the Chamber of the House of Representatives and is reproduced on every 2 coin and dollar produced by the Federal Government. 31 U.S.C. § 5112(d)(1). Also by statute, the Pledge of Allegiance describes the United States as “one Nation under God.” Although the Supreme Court has not decided a case involving the constitutionality of the national motto, former and current Justices have repeatedly noted that the motto is constitutional. In the Court’s recent evaluation of a challenge to the use of “under God” in the Pledge, Justice O’Connor cited the national motto as an example of permissible “ceremonial deism.” [G]overnment can, in a discrete category of cases, acknowledge or refer to the divine without offending the Constitution. This category of “ceremonial deism” most clearly encompasses such things as the national motto (“In God We Trust”) . These references are not minor trespasses upon the Establishment Clause to which I turn a blind eye. Instead, their history, character, and context prevent them from being constitutional violations at all. Elk Grove Unified Sch. Dist. v. Newdow , 542 U.S. 1, 37 (2004) (O’Connor, J., concurring) (citations omitted). Justice O’Connor added: [The Court] should not deny that our history has left its mark on our national traditions. It is unsurprising that a Nation founded by religious refugees and dedicated to religious freedom should find references to divinity in its symbols, songs, mottoes, and oaths. Eradicating such references would sever ties to a history that sustains this Nation even today. Id. at 35-36; see also County of Allegheny v. ACLU , 492 U.S. 573, 603-04 (1989); Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668, 693 (1984) (O =Connor, J., concurring). Justice Brennan also acknowledged that “such practices as the designation of ‘In God We Trust’ as our national motto . can best be understood . as a form of ‘ceremonial deism’ protected from Establishment Clause scrutiny.” Lynch, 465 U.S. at 716-17 (Brennan, J., dissenting) (citations omitted). Similarly, in County of Allegheny , Justice Blackmun, writing for the Court and joined by four other Justices, referred directly to the constitutionality of the motto: Our previous opinions have considered in dicta the motto and the pledge, characterizing them as consistent with the proposition that government may not communicate an endorsement of religious belief. We need not return to the 3 subject of ‘ceremonial deism,’. because there is an obvious distinction between creche displays and references to God in the motto and the pledge. 492 U.S. at 602-603 (emphasis added). The other four Justices in that case explained that striking down traditions like the national motto would be a disturbing departure from cases upholding the constitutionality of government practices recognizing the nation’s religious heritage. Id. at 657 (Kennedy, J., dissenting in part). Likewise, both the majority and the dissent in Wooley v. Maynard acknowledged the innocuous nature of the national motto’s presence on our currency. See 430 U.S. 705, 717 n.15 (1977); Id. at 720 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting). The use of “In God We Trust” as the national motto has already withstood numerous challenges in lower courts. For example, in Aronow v. United States , 432 F.2d 242, 243 (9th Cir. 1970), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed a challenge to the statutes requiring the motto to be inscribed on U.S. currency. As the Court explained: It is quite obvious that the national motto and the slogan on coinage and currency “In God We Trust” has nothing whatsoever to do with the establishment of religion. Its use is of a patriotic or ceremonial character and bears no true resemblance to a governmental sponsorship of a religious exercise. While “ceremonial” and “patriotic” may not be particularly apt words to describe the category of the national motto, it is excluded from First Amendment significance because the motto has no theological or ritualistic impact. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a similar challenge, considering itself bound by the Supreme Court =s statements on the constitutionality of the motto “almost as firmly as the Court =s outright holdings, particularly when the dicta is recent and not later enfeebled by later statements.” Gaylor v. United States , 74 F.3d 214, 217 (10th Cir. 1996). Several other courts have also held that the federal laws requiring the national motto to be printed on the nation’s currency are constitutional. See O’Hair v. Murray , 462 F. Supp. 19 (W.D. Tex. 1978), aff =d per curiam , 588 F.2d 1144 (5th Cir. 1978); Lambeth v. Bd. of Comm’rs , 321 F. Supp. 2d 688 (M.D.N.C. 2004); Myers v. Loudoun County School Bd., 251 F. Supp. 2d 1262 (E.D. Va. 2003); 4 Schmidt v. Cline , 127 F. Supp. 2d 1169 (D. Kan. 2000); Opinion of the Justices, Supreme Court of New Hampshire , 228 A.2d 161 (N.H. 1967). Despite the current state of the legal landscape, challenges to the national motto must be taken seriously. A decision holding the motto unconstitutional could have far-reaching effects on countless other historical religious references that exist in public schools or elsewhere in the public arena. For example, the use of “In God We Trust” is quite similar to the recitation of the Pledge or the study of passages from historical documents reflecting the same truth. The Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and many other significant documents contain the same recognition that the United States was founded upon a belief in God, yet a decision striking down the motto would certainly affect the ability of public schools to require students to memorize or study these important parts of American history.
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