(Illustration)
(Illustration)Flash 90

A lawsuit filed this week on behalf of several atheists is calling on the American government to remove "In God We Trust" from US money, claiming the phrase is unconstitutional.

The lawsuit was filed on Monday in Akron, Ohio, by Sacramento attorney Michael Newdow, who in the past failed at least twice in lawsuits against the government calling to remove "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, reports Associated Press.

Now the attorney has his sights set on the dollar bill, and is alleging that the phrase "In God West Trust" constitutes a breach of the constitution's separation of church and state.

One plaintiff in the suit claims his atheism is "substantially burdened because he is forced to bear on his person a religious statement that causes him to sense his government legitimizing, promoting and reinforcing negative and injurious attitudes not only against atheists in general, but against him personally."

A full 41 atheists from Ohio and Michigan are part of the lawsuit. Many of them are unnamed parents, and unnamed children who are being raised to not believe in God.

Congress, US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and several federal agencies are all listed in the lawsuit as defendants.

The suit brings to mind a case last July, when the Oklahoma Supreme Court banned a monument with the Ten Commandments from the Torah chiseled on it. The monument was located on the Oklahoma Capitol grounds, and the court ruled that it violated the state's constitutional ban on placing religious symbols on public property.