36 U.S.C. § 302
Section 302 · National motto
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 9 court decisions — leading case Harris v. Matthews (2007)
Most recently applied in Newdow v. Roberts (May 2010)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
"In God we trust" is the national motto.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Section
Amendments
2002—Pub. L. 107–293 reenacted section catchline and text without change.
Reaffirmation of Language
Pub. L. 107–293, §3(b), Nov. 13, 2002, 116 Stat. 2061, provided that: "In codifying this subsection [probably should be "section", meaning section 3 of Pub. L. 107–293, which amended this section], the Office of the Law Revision Counsel shall make no change in section 302, title 36, United States Code, but shall show in the historical and statutory notes that the 107th Congress reaffirmed the exact language that has appeared in the Motto for decades."