The motto, adopted in 1959, paraphrases a quote from Jesus Christ found in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew.
Ohio Tax Commissioner Roger Tracy, who has the motto printed on state tax forms, said: "I've been waiting for these First Amendment banana-heads to sue. In America, we believe God exists."
The Capitol Square board unanimously approved a plan in December to engrave the state seal and motto outside the Statehouse. The suit seeks to block the placement of the motto on Capitol Square Plaza or any other part of the Statehouse grounds and its future use as a state motto.
U.S. District Judge Marcel Livaudais ruled against Louisiana's Tangipahoa Parish School Board, striking down policy requiring the disclaimer, which says, in part, that the teaching of evolution is "not intended to influence or dissuade the biblical version of creation or any other concept."
"While encouraging students to maintain their belief in the Bible, or in God, may be a noble aim, it cannot be one in which the public schools participate, no matter how important this goal may be its supporters," Livaudais wrote.
"Section 7.3 describes the theory of evolution. The theory of evolution includes ideas about origin and development of life which have not been conclusively proven. Scientists continue to make new discoveries which change their ideas about the theory of evolution."
Lisa Herdahl, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and People for the American Way, sued the district in December 1994 because Herdahl's children were subjected to Bible classes and student-led intercom prayers at the North Pontotoc Atten-dance Center.
Last June, U.S. District Court Judge Neal Biggers ruled the student-led intercom prayers were unconstitutional.
Three Charleston residents filed suit in July to block their county council from posting the Ten Command-ments in its chamber. The council voted 9-0 to erect the biblical passage.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 decision that U.S. District Judge Michael Davis, of St. Paul, erred when he ruled that the school was unconstitutional a year ago.
To accommodate several Brethren families, the Wabasso School District agreed in 1993 to help reopen a closed Vesta elementary school, which a member of the sect purchased, by providing teachers and course materials. The Minnesota American Civil Liber-ties Union sued in 1994, saying the arrangement violated state/church separation.
A California teacher/Scientologist wants to set up the school in suburban Tujunga. The state education department recently gave preliminary approval to five of the Hubbard texts.
The nation's second largest school district, with 660,000 students as well as 14 charter schools, is freed from most state and local curriculum requirements but is still publicly funded.
The Council of Armenian-American Organizations of Northern California beat out two other bidders for the one-acre parcel and monument, which had been the subject of legal debate since 1990. Civil-rights advocates filed a constitutional challenge arguing that the cross, on public land, represented government endorsement of Christianity.
In January, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a ruling that the 103-foot-tall cross atop the city's highest mountain violated the state's constitutional ban on government preference for religion.
The sale is not final until approved by the San Francisco Board of Sup-ervisors and city voters in November.
Jersey City, New Jersey, and Mayor Bret Schundler appealed an earlier ruling calling the display an unconstitutional establishment of religion.
But a federal appeals court recently upheld the Syracuse, New York display of a nativity scene in a downtown public square during the Christmas season. The donated creche has been put on display for more than 20 years.
A photo of Lagarde with a "Thou Shalt Not Kill" sign leaning against his bench appeared in the July 22, 1997 edition of The New York Times.
Trooper Lane Jackstadt was acquitted of criminal charges, but in late 1995, he was fired for trying to force religion upon others.
The Orthodox Kiryas Joel community, about 50 miles north of New York City, speak and write in Yiddish, practice segregation of the sexes, wear distinctive clothing and follow a strict schedule of prayer and religious study.
The Court of Appeals ruled in May that the latest incarnation of the special education district violated the constitutional separation of church and state. The U.S. Supreme court invalidated the 1989 state legislation which created the district.
Guidelines state: that only public employees may offer the remedial help, which is federally funded through Title I; that teaching assignments in parochial schools must be made without regard to religious affiliation; that any classroom used to deliver Title I instruction to parochial students cannot contain religious symbols, and that public teachers cannot participate in the school's religious activities.
The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision on the issue overturned a ruling it had made 12 years ago forbidding public employees to teach inside parochial schools through the Title I program.
Women's groups and the state Attorney General questioned the legality of the public university's adherence to Catholic teachings. The Center would deny women certain forms of birth control--such as abortions and tubal ligations. Men could still obtain office-visit vasectomies.
In a letter to the chief executive officer of Dempsey Hospital, State Attor-ney General Richard Blumenthal warned it to be "cognizant of the duty of all health care providers to make medical procedures equally available to all men and women."
Blumenthal wrote that, as a public institution, the university cannot sponsor an organization that upholds a specific religious doctrine.