United States national motto

The modern motto of the United States of America, as established in a 1956 law signed by President Dwight D Eisenhower, is In God We Trust.^[1][2] One possible origin of In God We Trust is the final stanza of The Star-Spangled Banner. Written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key (and later adopted as the U.S. national anthem), the song contains an early reference to a variation of the phrase: "... And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'"^[3] The phrase IN GOD WE TRUST as a motto for currency (but not as a National motto) first appeared on United States coins in 1864.^[2]

The 1956 law was the first establishment of an official motto for the country, although E Pluribus Unum ("from many, one") had been adopted by Act of Congress in 1782 and had been used on coins and paper money since 1795. Due to these acts and uses, it had thus been unofficially considered to be the country's motto^{[by whom?]}. The change from "E Pluribus Unum" to "In God We Trust" was generally considered uncontroversial at the time, given the pressures of the Cold War era.

The constitutionality of the modern national motto has been questioned with relationship to the separation of church and state outlined in the First Amendment. In 1970, in Aronow v. United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the motto does not violate the First Amendment to the Constitution. The United States Supreme Court has not ruled on the issue.

References

1. ^ 36 U.S.C. § 302 National motto
2. ^ ^{a b} "U.S. Treasury - Fact Sheet on the History of "In God We Trust"". United States Department of the Treasury. http://www.treasury.gov/about/education/Pages/in-god-we-trust.aspx. Retrieved 2009-04-22. 
3. ^ 50th Anniversary of Our National Motto, "In God We Trust," 2006, Proclamation of George W. Bush, White House.