{
  "id": "96-609",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "96-609",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 316343,
      "date": "1996-07-10",
      "retrieved": "2016-05-24T21:01:46.676941",
      "title": "\"In God We Trust\" on the Nation's Coins and Currency and As the National Motto: History and Constitutionality",
      "summary": "This document also available in  PDF Image .\n  Two federal statutes currently mandate that the phrase \"In God We Trust\" be inscribed on all\nU.S. coins and currency. A third statute declares the phrase to be the national motto. All of the\nstatutes have been challenged from time to time on the grounds that they violate that part of the First\nAmendment which provides that \"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of\nreligion ....\" But notwithstanding the religious affirmation embodied in the phrase, no court has held\nthese practices to violate the establishment clause. Three federal appellate courts have held such\nuses to be constitutional, and the Supreme Court in  dicta  has repeatedly indicated its\napprobation.\n  \"In God We Trust\" first appeared on one- and two-cent coins during the Civil War as the result\nof an initiative by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Director of the Mint, and in 1865 Congress\ngranted the Secretary discretionary authority to so inscribe other coins as well. In 1907 President\nTheodore Roosevelt stirred controversy by asserting that the inscription amounted to \"irreverence\nwhich comes dangerously close to sacrilege\" and approving the issuance of coins without the\ninscription. Congress responded to this act by mandating that the inscription be restored. In 1955\nthe inscription was extended to currency as well, and in 1956 the phrase was statutorily declared to\nbe the national motto.\n  Three cases have been decided which involved challenges to the constitutionality of these uses\nof the phrase, and in each case a federal appellate court held the practices to be constitutional. In\n Aronow v. United States  the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held such uses\nto be \"of a\npatriotic or ceremonial character and ... no true resemblance to a governmental sponsorship of\nreligion.\" In  O'Hair v. Murray  the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit agreed\nthat the phrase\n\"has no theological or ritualistic impact.\" And in  Gaylor v. United States  the U.S. Court\nof Appeals\nfor the Tenth Circuit held the practices to constitute \"a form of `ceremonial deism' which through\nhistorical usage and ubiquity cannot be reasonably understood to convey government approval of\nreligious belief.\"\n  The Supreme Court has not decided any case involving the constitutionality of these practices. \nBut it has repeatedly indicated in  dicta  that it perceives no constitutional problem. \nIndividual\nJustices have opined at greater length to the same effect. Nonetheless, until the Court actually\nresolves a case raising the issue of the constitutionality of inscribing the phrase on the nation's coins\nand currency and declaring it to be the national motto, additional challenges can be expected to recur.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": false,
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          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/96-609",
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      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Constitutional Questions"
  ]
}