MODERN CHALLENGES TO THE MOTTO’S USE
Since 1955, all the United States coins and currency have carried the motto "In God We Trust." Not until 1970 and 1978 were the laws authorizing its use legally challenged. Responding to atheist Madalyn Murray O"Hair’s charge, the court rejected her argument that the phrase, "In God We Trust," violated the First Amendment. The court cited remarks about the motto made by Justice William Brennan in his concurring opinion in Abingdon v. Schempp, (the case which struck down school Bible reading) stating:
It is not that the use of these four words (In God We Trust) can be dismissed as ‘de minimis’… The truth is that we have simply interwoven the motto so deeply into the fabric of our civil policy that its present use may well not present that type of involvement which the First Amendment prohibits."
The United States Supreme Court refused to hear her appeal.