Lawsuit Against Ohio’s Motto Places God at Center Stage

The city of Stow, Ohio, plucked the cross from its official seal. The town of Lorain adds decidedly secular reindeer each December to its nativity scene. Now, all Ohioans may be forced to do without God’s assistance when filling out their income tax forms.

A federal appeals court in Cincinnati sided Tuesday with the American Civil Liberties Union, agreeing that the state’s motto, “In God, all things are possible,” violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

If the 2-1 ruling stands, the state will have to pry the bronze placard from the sidewalk at Capitol Square Plaza in Columbus, delete the phrase from the secretary of state’s stationery and print God-less tax forms.

“In times of great religious fervor, when people feel a mandate to carry their religion out into the world, the 1st Amendment becomes even more important,” said Chris Link, executive director of the ACLU of Ohio. “Separation of church and state, and the free expression clause in the 1st Amendment . . . were envisioned to protect the sanctity of religion as much as they were to protect government.”

Countered Don Coughlin, the former mayor of Stow: “It just amazes me that this group, with good lawyers, cannot find a better use for their time and talents.” Coughlin battled the ACLU for nearly four years in the 1990s, discovering hundreds of other cities across the country whose seals included a cross, before replacing Stow’s with a book that looks like the Bible and the legally defensible slogan “In God We Trust.”

The case of the state motto--Ohio’s second, the first having been done away with after a similar squabble in 1868--turned not on the reference to God, but on its source.

In 1959, following 89 years of motto-lessness, a 12-year-old Cincinnati boy suggested part of a passage from the New Testament. Legislators loved the idea and passed a law swiftly.

Although the idea of a god and the word “God” are centerpieces of many of the world’s religions, the New Testament is not. And the phrase, the appeals court noted, comes from a passage in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 19, verse 26, that quotes Jesus Christ.

“The state of Ohio has adopted a motto which crosses the line from evenhandedness toward all religions to a preference for Christianity, in the form of Christian text,” the ruling said. “Thus, it is an endorsement of Christianity by the state of Ohio.”

The dissenting judge from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the word “God” should be interpreted in a more universal sense.

The brouhaha began in 1997, when ex-Gov. George Voinovich, now a U.S. senator, spotted a placard during a trade mission to India. “Government work is God’s work,” the sign in the public building read. Upon his return, Voinovich announced plans to sink the state’s motto into a sidewalk outside the Capitol.

The ACLU didn’t like the idea at all and soon agreed to represent someone else who didn’t like it, if for entirely different reasons. The Rev. Matthew Peterson, a Presbyterian minister from suburban Cleveland, claimed the motto was a vain invocation of the name of God.

Together, they sued. And in September 1998, U.S. District Judge James Graham delivered a complicated ruling: The motto only favors one religion over another, Graham ruled, in the context of its source, the New Testament. The plaque could be installed at the statehouse, Graham wrote, “as long as you don’t mention that the quote comes from the Bible.”

“It was,” Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Dick Feagler wrote, “a ruling in favor of plagiarism. It allowed the state to steal a good line without giving credit for it.”

Peterson and the ACLU appealed. Tuesday, they won. But Gov. Robert A. Taft has promised an appeal of his own: “I will do everything within my power to uphold and defend the motto of our state,” he said.

After all, South Dakota’s motto is “Under God, the people rule.” Arizona prefers “God enriches.” Florida goes with “In God We Trust,” a phrase with unknown origins and a vagueness that has earned it a thumbs-up from many federal courts over the years.

Ohio could always return to its first motto, “Imperium In Imperio,” Latin for “An empire within an empire.” But if folks didn’t like it 132 years ago, they probably won’t like it now, said Akron historian George Knepper.

“It was too royal. Ohio doesn’t go much for things royal--or for God, at the moment, it appears.”