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LOS ANGELES, June 13, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A California federal trial judge has dismissed the lawsuit filed by Michael Newdow challenging the constitutionality ofÂthe AmericanÂnational motto, “In God We Trust.” Newdow is the atheist who achieved national attention in his previous unsuccessful attempt to remove the Pledge of Allegiance from public schools because it includes the words “one nation under God.”

The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, had filed a friend of the court brief seeking the dismissal of Newdow’s national motto lawsuit. Edward L. White III, the Thomas More Law Center’s trial counsel who submitted the friend of the court brief, commented: “Our national motto does not have the constitutionally impermissible effect of establishing a religion. Rather, it acknowledges our nation’s rich religious heritage, which informed the founding of our nation.”

The federal trial judge ruled that the national motto has nothing to do with the establishment of a religion. The judge noted that the use of the national motto is patriotic and has no true resemblance to a governmental sponsorship of a religious exercise.