NCLA to Court: Self-Defense Must Be Allowed on the Way to and from Synagogue, Too
Silver Spring Jewish Center, Inc., et al. v. Montgomery County, Maryland, et al.
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Washington, DC, Sept. 25, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The New Civil Liberties Alliance has asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland for a preliminary injunction to allow members of Montgomery County, Maryland’s Silver Spring Jewish Center to carry firearms for self-defense while walking between their synagogue and their homes. NCLA represents the synagogue in the Silver Spring Jewish Center, et al. v. Montgomery County lawsuit, which challenges the county’s recently-imposed ban on firearms in places of worship and within 100 yards of any “place of public assembly” for violating the First, Second, and Fourteenth Amendments. NCLA brought the lawsuit together with Rabbi J. Menashe Shapiro, who attends the synagogue. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty joins the case at this stage as co-counsel for Silver Spring Jewish Center.
The court has already granted a preliminary injunction allowing Silver Spring Jewish Center members to carry firearms inside the synagogue. It concluded that the county’s ban on carrying firearms there likely violates both the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms and the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion, as NCLA has argued. In the same order, however, the court declined to enjoin the prohibition on carrying firearms within 100 yards of any place of public assembly. That makes it impossible for members to carry a firearm as they walk to and from the synagogue—as their religious beliefs require them to do on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays.
NCLA urges the court to reconsider that portion of its decision because it applied an incorrect Second Amendment standard that the Supreme Court rejected in the 2022 New York State Pistol & Rifle Association v. Bruen decision. The court also incorrectly analyzed the plaintiffs’ claim based on their First Amendment right to free exercise of religion. The requested relief is especially urgently needed in light of upcoming Jewish holidays and the anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel.
People besides Silver Spring Jewish Center members, including members of other religious communities, still face civil penalties from Montgomery County if they carry firearms in and around their places of worship. As the lawsuit continues, NCLA is determined to permanently block enforcement of both the ban on firearms in places of worship and the ban on firearms within 100 yards of places of public assembly.
NCLA released the following statement:
“The court has rightly protected Silver Spring Jewish Center members’ right to bear arms to defend themselves in their place of worship. For the very same reasons, it should also protect their right to carry their firearms as they walk between the synagogue and their homes, as their religious beliefs require.”
—Jacob Huebert, Senior Litigation Counsel, NCLA
For more information visit the case page here.
ABOUT NCLA
NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State. NCLA’s public-interest litigation and other pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that will help restore Americans’ fundamental rights.
Joe Martyak New Civil Liberties Alliance 703-403-1111 joe.martyak@ncla.legal
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