USA- The Forney, Texas City Council reached a unanimous vote last week to have In God We Trust the phrase to be placed on all city vehicles. A business owner has agreed to bear the cost of both materials and labor for the project.
“There aren’t many opportunities to turn the city around like this and I thought this was my chance to turn it around,” Jay Stinson, who owns Big Jay’s Signs and Shirtworks, told ABC News.
According to the report, Stinson saw the proposal, and agreed to donate the decals and the labor to do it. He is currently working on his final design. The cost is estimated to be anywhere from $1,000 to $2,500, depending on how many police cars and fire trucks there are and how many tags each will have.
“I believe in the words of this motto,” he said. “I believe our country was founded on this motto and I believe this project will be one small step in bringing our community together and making people feel better about our police and fire departments.”
However, there may be some who do not welcome this move. In 2013, according to the Huffington Post, the Freedom from Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit against the US Treasury Department for having the phrase: In God We Trust on the US currency. Last year, the group questioned police in Childress, Texas for placing tags bearing the same phrase on police cars.
However, in a legal opinion in November of last year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said it does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
He wrote: “Congress adopted In God We Trust as the national motto of the United States in 1956. In addition, Congress has required the use of the motto on United States coins against printing and constitutional challenges to these statutes, courts across the country have always maintained that the statutes do not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. On the other hand, the United States Supreme Court has stated on several occasions that the motto is constitutional in reference to our religious heritage.
Fox News reported in February that the Rutherford Sheriff’s Department in North Carolina has also begun putting bumper stickers on its police cars that read: In God We Trust.
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