SANDPOINT, ID – Signs with the United States national motto “In God We Trust” will be allowed in Idaho schools under House Bill 41, which outlaws political viewpoints, according Idaho Department of Education.

Through a public records request, EdNews obtained the first complaint filed under the law after it went into effect last month.

The complaint came out of the Lake Pend Oreille School District in Sandpoint. It targeted a sign that displays the United States flag on top the national motto in the middle and the Idaho state flag below. The complaint was filed on July 2, the day after the law went into effect.

The sign that was the subject of the first HB 41 complaint.

The complainant said that “In God We Trust” is a religious belief and not everyone’s opinion and therefore shouldn’t be allowed under the new law.

“This sign clearly violates House Bill 41, which states that signs or banners cannot display religious ideas,” she wrote.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Debbie Critchfield, emailed back on Tuesday, that the poster is permitted because it complies with a different law allowing the national motto to be displayed.

“It is the Department’s position that if the school display in question complies with the national motto law, then it does not violate the school displays law,” Critchfield wrote.

The complaint is the first and only complaint to be filed thus far under HB 41, which has caused significant controversy in the state since its passage earlier this year.

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador said a popular sign reading “Everyone is Welcome Here” violates the law in a legal opinion provided to the Idaho Department of Education.

Read EdNews’ full coverage of the issue here.