Federal Judge Sides With Synagogue in Fight Against Maryland County's Gun Restrictions

A federal judge dealt a blow to a heavily Democratic Maryland county this week, ordering it to allow a synagogue to permit worshippers to carry concealed firearms for protection during services.

Senior U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow of the District of Maryland, a Clinton appointee, issued the ruling Thursday in a lawsuit brought by the New Civil Liberties Alliance against Montgomery County over its "sensitive places" ban on firearms in houses of worship. The New Civil Liberties Alliance announced the win on X, stating it had "halted Montgomery County, Maryland's ban on synagogue defending itself with firearms."

The case stemmed from Bill 23-26, which Democratic Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich signed into law on July 27 after Maryland's state Supreme Court struck down some of the county's earlier firearm-carrying restrictions in an April 28 ruling. In her 72-page opinion, Chasanow found that "the sources on which Defendants rely do not demonstrate that the historical analogues for firearm restrictions in places of worship were well-accepted."

Chasanow's decision leaned on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Wolford v. Lopez, which struck down a similar Hawaii law containing multiple provisions restricting where firearms could be carried. Both Montgomery County's law and Maryland's broader statute were enacted in response to the Supreme Court's June 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which found New York's "may issue" concealed carry permit system unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.

The Justice Department had already been separately challenging Montgomery County's carry ban in churches, and warned the county before filing suit that its law could leave worshippers defenseless. "History teaches us that houses of worship are vulnerable to armed attacks and congregants are particularly in need of the ability to defend themselves," Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights R. Jonas Geissler wrote in a July 30 letter to county officials. "By disarming religious congregants during worship, Montgomery County infringes on such congregants' ability to defend against such attacks."

The ruling arrives against a backdrop of real, documented violence at houses of worship. A shooter killed nine people at a Charleston, South Carolina church in 2015. A Mormon church in Grand Blanc, Michigan was attacked in September 2025. A San Diego mosque was targeted by an active shooter in May of this year, and the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh was struck by a mass shooter in October 2018. But armed citizens have also stopped attacks: armed security guards at a West Bloomfield, Michigan synagogue thwarted a Lebanese migrant who drove a truck into the building in March, saving lives, and in December 2019, an armed Texas parishioner fatally shot a gunman who opened fire inside a church, though the attacker also killed a member of the church's armed security team and a deacon before being stopped.

The ruling marks a significant Second Amendment victory as gun-rights advocates continue pressing blue jurisdictions across the country to roll back post-Bruen restrictions on where concealed firearms may be carried.