A Win for These Police to Keep "In God We Trust" On Their Cruisers

News Staff : Nov 5, 2015
CBN News

"'In God We Trust' represents a historical premise on which our great nation was founded. It is imperative we safeguard the constitutional principles for which our Founding Fathers fought." –Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

(Childress, TX)—[CBN News] Police religious mottoes are constitutional, according to the opinion issued Wednesday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. (Photo via CBN News)

The opinion comes after the Freedom from Religion Foundation complained about the Childress Police Department displaying the motto, suggesting it violated the Separation of Church and State.

But Paxton said displaying "In God We Trust" on a police department's patrol vehicles is protected by the First Amendment.

"...Displaying 'In God We Trust' on police vehicles is a passive use of a motto steeped in our nation's history that does not coerce citizen approval or participation," Paxton wrote in his opinion.

"A law enforcement department's decision to display the national motto on its vehicles is consistent with that history," he said.

The attorney general had already voiced his support of the police department last month.

"'In God We Trust' represents a historical premise on which our great nation was founded," he wrote in an October Facebook post. "It is imperative we safeguard the constitutional principles for which our Founding Fathers fought."