Judge Saves 'In God We Trust' at Capitol

An atheist group’s attempt to have the “In God We Trust” and Pledge of Allegiance engravings removed from the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C., has failed. A federal judge in Wisconsin threw out the lawsuit brought by the Freedom From Religion Foundation,
Roll Call reports.

U.S. District Judge William Conley ruled that the concurrent resolutions that asked the Capitol architect to make the engravings weren’t connected to a specific appropriation. Supreme Court precedent dictates that taxpayers can’t bring a suit alleging injury unless the injury is tied to a specific appropriation, Conley declared.

“Plaintiffs fail to establish standing because they cannot point to any specific Congressional appropriation for the allegedly unconstitutional concurrent resolution,” he wrote. Conley didn’t say whether the engravings violate separation of church and state.