On Friday, Nov. 18, 2005, atheist Michael Newdow filed a 162-page lawsuit to take out the phrase "In God We Trust" from all U.S. currency.

"Michael Newdow seeks to remove 'In God We Trust' from U.S. coins and dollar bills, claiming in a federal lawsuit filed Friday [11/18/2005] that the motto is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.

Newdow, a Sacramento doctor and lawyer, used a similar argument when he challenged the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools because it contains the words 'under God.'

In 1955, the year after Congress inserted the words 'under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance, Congress required all currency to carry the motto 'In God We Trust.'

'The placement of 'In God We Trust' on the coins and currency was clearly done for religious purposes and to have religious effects,' Newdow wrote in the 162-page lawsuit he filed against Congress.

Newdow's latest lawsuit came five days after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected, without comment, a challenge to an inscription of "In God We Trust" on a North Carolina county government building."
Nov. 18, 2005 Associated Press