Top 10 Civil Liberties News Stories of the Week - August 4, 2006 Edition

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed H.R. Res. 396 and made "in God we trust" the official motto of the United States on July 30th, 1956. The motive, at the time, was to distinguish the mainly religious United States from the mainly antireligious Soviet Union, which had detonated its first atomic bomb just seven years earlier and, under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, had emerged as the United States' most powerful rival.

Today, in an age where our most significant international rival has embroidered the name of God on its flag 23 times, conspicuous religiosity might not be the best way to explain our unique role on the world stage. But never mind; most of us still believe in God, and it is unlikely that this President, this Congress, or this Supreme Court would ever change a motto that so visibly warms the hearts of...well, this President, this Congress, and this Supreme Court. The more interesting question is: When a serious challenge to the "in God we trust" standard does finally make it to the Supreme Court, how on Earth will the Court protect that standard without allowing government endorsement of religion? Because I'm quite confident they'll manage, but I can hardly wait to see what kind of argument they'll come up with.

Stay tuned, true believers. (And the rest of you, too!)