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It is written on US currency "In God we trust":
I know that US constitution is secular. This link says that the founding fathers didn't even like the idea of religion in the system.
Why is this motto written on US currency?
This appears unconstitutional, so why do the courts not rule it so? What politics are in play here?
Many people in the US have strong religious views.
This leads to many legislators expressing religious views and supporting legislation with religious implications. Generally calling ourselves a "Christian Nation" has gone out of style, but many religion inspired ideas are supported as not "really" being religious or on nominally non-religious grounds.
People who support a stricter secularism often challenge these rules using the 1st amendment of the constitution's ban on establishing a religion.
So far the courts seem to have ruled that using the word 'God' is not enough to count as establishing a religion as long as some ambiguity is allowed over whose god is meant.
"In God We Trust" is the official motto of the United States since 1956, and was one of the nation's unofficial mottos since the 1800s, possibly originating with a line in the fourth stanza of the national anthem: "And this be our motto: 'In God is our Trust'".
You raise several questions.
In semi reverse order of your asking them:
No. Not according to the US Courts system, which the U.S. uses for constitutional interpretation. See, for example, Aronow v. United States, where the ruling included:
It is quite obvious that the national motto and the slogan on coinage and currency 'In God We Trust' has nothing whatsoever to do with the establishment of religion. Its use is of patriotic or ceremonial character and bears no true resemblance to a governmental sponsorship of a religious exercise. ...It is not easy to discern any religious significance attendant the payment of a bill with coin or currency on which has been imprinted 'In God We Trust' or the study of a government publication or document bearing that slogan.
Because it does not establish a state religion, which is what the first amendment bars Congress from doing.
The motto started out on coins.
The motto first appeared on the 1864 two-cent coin following collaboration between the Mint Director, the Secretary of the Treasury and Congress to place the motto on that coin. Further legislation from Congress in the 1860s and 1870s allowed the motto to be used on additional coins. And since 1938, it has appeared on all US coins.
Later, in 1955 Congress passed a law that "'In God We Trust' ... shall appear on all United States currency and coins".
So, the reason the motto is written on US currency is that Congress passed a law saying it would be.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury speculates the motto made its way onto coins in the 1860s because:
The motto IN GOD WE TRUST was placed on United States coins largely because of the increased religious sentiment existing during the Civil War. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase received many appeals from devout persons throughout the country, urging that the United States recognize the Deity on United States coins.
The move to add it to paper currency in the 1950s coincides with Congress establishing "In God We Trust" as the national motto, establishing an annual National Day of Prayer, and adoption of the Pledge of Allegiance which includes the phrase "One nation, under God". All of this happened at a time when the U.S. was facing off against the atheistic communism of the Soviet Union, which I suspect was the driving popular/political force -- to differentiate the United States as having a capitalistic and deistic ideology.
The Constitution only mentions religion in the first amendment, which bars Congress from establishing a State religion. In that regard, the Constitution is a secular document - it certainly does not establish some sort of theocracy.
At the same time though, other founding documents like the Declaration of Independence make explicit appeals to a Creator.
Furthermore, while the amended Constitution forbade establishing a Federal State Church, many individual U.S. States had State Churches during and after the founding period. Connecticut's remained until 1818.
Trying to pin down a consensus of the founders on the appropriate interplay of religion and government is messy. I think an anecdote that captures this well is that the first two US presidents, George Washington and John Adams, both proclaimed national days of prayer as President. But then our third President, Thomas Jefferson refused to do the same, replying to Rev. Samuel Miller as follows:
I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from inter meddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises
James Madison, the fourth president, resumes the practice. Then it basically ends until the 1950s (right around when Congress decrees "In God We Trust" should go on paper currency).
Similarly, Washington proclaimed an explicitly religious day of Thanksgiving. Then Thanksgiving fell out of practice from 1815 until the Civil War period in the 1860s, where Lincoln puts out a Thanksgiving proclamation that goes so far in regard to religious content that it includes:
They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy
(And at that same time, "In God We Trust" starts going on coins.)
There is quite a lot of history there. Essentially, it reduces to a claim that natural rights exist, and that they are cannot be abrogated by kings. See Locke's first treatise for a great example of that reasoning.
If you look back at the revolution, you'll see similar language all over the place. For example, one of the original revolutionary flags (the liberty tree) has "An appeal to heaven" along the top.
Googling around, I found this discussion of New England ministers; the philosophy described in chapter 2 is a reasonable starting point for why this was a very important point.
