Reprinted with permission from TheNewAmerican.com.

Kentucky has joined several other states in passing legislation requiring schools to display the U.S. national motto “In God We Trust.” Kentucky’s state legislature passed the measure in March, Republican Governor Matt Bevin signed it into law, and with the beginning of this school year students across the state will be greeted by the phrase, thanks to the measure which mandates that “local boards shall require each public elementary and secondary school to display the national motto of the United States, ‘In God We Trust,’ in a prominent location in the school.”

The Lexington Herald Leader newspaper reported that school districts across Kentucky are hard at work placing the motto in prominent spots in school facilities. And while thus far the secular-atheist Freedom From Religion Foundation has been silent on the Kentucky law, that state’s franchise of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sent a letter to the legislature before the measure’s passage insisting that lawmakers “refrain from mandating any religious observation or exercise of religion in our public schools.”

In a public letter ACLU attorneys wrote: “We firmly believe that our legislature should be working to ensure that schools are adequately funded, that teachers are appropriately compensated, and that our students receive the highest quality education possible. To do right by our students, these should be our priorities — not mandating that every school in the Commonwealth display a motto that has the appearance of endorsing religion.”

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Public schools in Florida must now display the motto, “In God We Trust,” per provisions of a state law passed in March and now brought to full effect with the opening of the new academic year. Title XLVIII, Chapter 1003 of the state law has been amended to read: “Each district school board shall adopt rules to require, in all of the schools of the district and in each building used by the district school board, the display of the state motto, “In God We Trust” … in a conspicuous place.”

A federal court has ruled that printing "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency doesn't amount to a religious endorsement and therefore doesn't violate the U.S. Constitution. The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin reports the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago made the ruling Thursday in a lawsuit brought by a self-declared Satanist, Kenneth Mayle. He argued that the motto propagates a religious view he opposes.