Equal Protection Claim

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Kenneth Mayle v. United States of America, et al.

Case No.: 17-3221

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and MANION and ROVNER, Circuit Judges

Focus: Equal Protection Claim

Kenneth Mayle, an adherent of what he calls nontheistic Satanism, sued the United States and officials from the United States Mint, Department of the Treasury, and Bureau of Engraving and Printing, to enjoin the printing of the national motto, “In God We Trust,” on United States currency. The district court dismissed his complaint, and we affirm.

Mayle asserts that the motto amounts to a government endorsement of a “monotheistic concept of God.” Because Satanists practice a religion that rejects monotheism, they regard the motto as “an attack on their very right to exist.” Possessing and using currency, Mayle complains, forces him (and his fellow Satanists) to affirm and spread a religious message “committed to the very opposite ideals that he espouses.” In addition, Mayle characterizes the printing of the motto as a form of discrimination against adherents to minority religions because it favors practitioners of monotheistic religions. All this, Mayle asserts, demonstrates that the defendants are violating the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), the Fifth Amendment’s Equal Protection clause, and the First Amendment’s Free Speech, Free Exercise, and Establishment clauses.

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.