So, does the First Amendment guarantee Americans freedom of religion, or freedom from religion? Depends on who you ask:
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- The nation's largest group of atheists and agnostics filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to block an architect from engraving "In God We Trust" and the Pledge of Allegiance at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington.
The Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation's lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in western Wisconsin, claims the taxpayer-funded engravings would be an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.The House and Senate passed identical resolutions this month directing the Architect of the Capitol to engrave "In God We Trust" and the pledge in prominent places at the entrance for 3 million tourists who visit the Capitol each year.
The resolution came in response to critics who complained Congress spent $621 million on the new three-story underground center without paying respect to the nation's religious heritage. The center opened in December after years of construction.
The foundation is seeking a court order to stop the engravings, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will cost less than $100,000.
Does the phrase "In God We Trust" on a public building violate the freedom of atheists to doubt His existence, of agnostics to ponder the question, and of radical Catholic nuns to get hung up on the question of whether "trust" is the right word for Someone Who started such patriarchal and oppressive religious structures in the first place?
Maybe a better question is why the federal government spent years and 621 million dollars of taxpayers' money on a three-story underground Capital Visitor Center...
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First Amendment knee-slappers:
In God We Trust. All others pay cash.
Helen Waite is our credit manager. If you want credit, go to Helen Waite.
Ta-da-da.
LOL and h/t to John E. and Grumpy.
"The Supreme Court actually held, way back, that "In God We Trust" on coinage is not unconstitutional since in that context it is drained of any significant meaning"
Which is precisely why, as a believer, I find such ceremonial pseudo-religious ritual blasphemous. (OTOH, if it was seriously intended to foster religion, it would be a violation of the First Amendment. Either way, it ought to go.)
I don't think the Almighty signed off His intellectual property rights on this slogan.
I'm glad you liked it Max!
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