Ohio’s state motto, “With God, all things are possible,” is a direct quotation from the Bible (Matthew 19:26) and was adopted by the Ohio Legislature in 1959 after a statewide petition drive initiated by ten-year-old Jimmy (James) Mastronardo; the law took effect October 1, 1959. When the motto was adopted, American public religiosity was high. Four years earlier, in 1955, reports indicate that 92 percent of Americans identified as Christian.

The First Amendment guarantees that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” a principle that requires government neutrality toward religion. The inclusion of an explicitly religious phrase in an official state motto conveys an implicit state endorsement of a particular religious sentiment and therefore raises serious church state concerns for Ohio’s many non religious citizens and those of other faiths.

Legal history shows the motto has been litigated. The ACLU challenged Ohio’s motto and won a divided panel ruling that found the motto unconstitutional, but that decision was later reversed on full-court review and the motto was upheld. Courts have repeatedly relied on doctrines such as “ceremonial deism” (and appeals to longstanding tradition and a “generic” expression of optimism) to uphold similar religious references in government practice an approach critics call a legal loophole that allows religious language to remain in public symbols despite Establishment Clause concerns. Key cases and precedents invoked in this area include Aronow v. United States (9th Cir. 1970) and Marsh v. Chambers (U.S. Supreme Court, 1983). 

Because a large religious majority once dominated public life and political power, government officials were able to adopt religious mottos and later defend them in court using the ceremonial deism/tradition line of reasoning, allowing these mottos to persist even as constitutional arguments and public demographics have shifted.For many Ohioans this is not a technicality: it is a real world example of how government can appear to privilege one set of beliefs over others.

We therefore urge the Ohio General Assembly to reconsider the state motto and remove religious phrasing from state symbols and official documents so that the state can truly represent all its residents equally religious and non religious alike and stop lying to the people of Ohio.