RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — A federal appeals court has said an inscription of the national motto, “In God We Trust,” on a North Carolina government building is constitutional.
In a unanimous ruling May 14, a three-judge panel of the Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the phrase does not run afoul of the First Amendment's ban on government support for religion.
“In this situation, the reasonable observer must be deemed aware of the patriotic uses, both historical and present, of the phrase 'In God We Trust,'” said Judge Robert King, authoring the court's opinion.
He noted that the phrase has appeared on American coinage since the mid-1800s, and was made the official national motto by Congress in 1856.
The phrase was inscribed on the wall of the Davidson County Government Center in Lexington, N.C., in 2002. Private donations paid for it.
Two lawyers who have regular business at the building sued shortly thereafter, saying the inscription violates the Constitution. But a lower federal court ruled against them last year. The appeals panel upheld that decision.