The phrase is one of several prominently featured on currency.
Sacramento attorney Michael Newdow filed the lawsuit (pdf) on January 11 in Akron, Ohio. He’s representing 41 plaintiffs from Ohio and Michigan.
The lawsuit says the phrase is “unconstitutional” and violates the separation of church and state.
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“The ‘In G-d We Trust’ phrase has continued to be a tool used to perpetuate favoritism for (Christian) Monotheism, ” the suit contends. “It has also continued to perpetuate anti-Atheistic bias.”
One of the plaintiffs claims his atheism is “substantially burdened because he is forced to bear on his person a religious statement that causes him to sense his government legitimizing, promoting and reinforcing negative and injurious attitudes not only against Atheists in general, but against him personally.”
But Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which focuses on constitutional law, wrote on Fox News that the lawsuit will fail.
