Washington, DC, Nov. 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit 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 homes and the synagogue. NCLA and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty represent 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.” This ban violates the First, Second, and Fourteenth Amendments. NCLA brought the lawsuit together with Rabbi J. Menashe Shapiro, who attends the synagogue.
NCLA has already won a preliminary injunction from the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland allowing Silver Spring Jewish Center members to carry firearms inside the synagogue. The district court 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. However, the district court preserved the prohibition on carrying firearms within 100 yards of any place of public assembly. Synagogue members’ religious beliefs require them to walk to and from the synagogue on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays. Preserving the 100-yard prohibition makes it impossible for them to carry a firearm on those journeys.
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 Second Amendment protects everyone’s right to carry a firearm as they go about daily life. The First Amendment protects the right to freely exercise one’s religion. The 100-yard rule deprives Silver Spring Jewish Center members of both. We’re hopeful the Fourth Circuit will recognize that and quickly block its enforcement.”
— 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
