Synagogue, DOJ challenge ban on concealed carry near houses of worship

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, August 05, 2026

Both the U.S. Department of Justice and an Orthodox Jewish synagogue are suing a Maryland county over a new law that bans carrying guns near places of worship. Both plaintiffs cite constitutional concerns and worries about the safety of congregants amid rising antisemitism.

On Monday, the DOJ filed the lawsuit against Montgomery County, Maryland, a heavily populated, Democratic-majority Washington suburb, over the newly enacted Expedited Bill 23-26.

The DOJ says the law “violates the Second Amendment by prohibiting law-abiding citizens from possessing firearms in daily life,” adding that “Bill 23-26 prohibits carrying firearms at thousands of locations, and also creates an arbitrary 100-yard exclusion zone around each location.”

The law bars people from carrying a gun within 100 yards of “a place of public assembly,” including places of worship, schools, parks, libraries, hospitals, recreational facilities and childcare centers.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, asks a federal judge to block the county from enforcing the law’s unlawful provisions while the case proceeds. 

“The Second Amendment does not allow local governments to ban law-abiding citizens from carrying firearms in public places as they go about their daily lives,” said Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon. “Montgomery County makes it almost impossible for a law-abiding citizen with a valid carry license to walk down the street and avoid these exclusion zones. The Civil Rights Division will not stand idle while Montgomery County tramples the rights guaranteed to law-abiding citizens by the Second Amendment.”

Another lawsuit was filed Thursday in the same court by Silver Spring Jewish Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Rabbi J. Menashe Shapiro. Their complaint argues Expedited Bill 23-26 violates the Second Amendment, the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The plaintiffs are seeking nominal damages, attorneys’ fees and a ruling declaring the bill unconstitutional. They point to the practical stakes of the measure amid rising antisemitism in the U.S.

“This could not come at a worse time for Montgomery County’s Jewish community,” the lawsuit states.

“Just a short time after the firebombing in Boulder, the arson attack on Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence, and — close to home — the shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum, Montgomery County seeks to deprive Jews of their ability to defend themselves at their most Jewish moment: praying in synagogues,” the complaint added. “Jewish law requires Jews to defend themselves when necessary.”

The lawsuit cites incidents targeting Silver Spring Jewish Center directly.

“In October of 2024, a visibly Jewish member of the synagogue was attacked just outside the building. More recently, in the early morning hours of June 9, 2026, an unknown individual attempted (unsuccessfully) to gain entry to the synagogue.”

Last Friday, County Executive Marc Elrich, a Democrat, said that Bill 23-26 "is designed to better protect community gathering places from gun violence."

"The Maryland Supreme Court recently clarified the limits of what counties can regulate, and this legislation brings our local code into compliance with that ruling," he wrote in a statement. "While this bill adjusts our laws to avoid conflicts with State preemption — such as updating our definition of 'places of public assembly' — we are preserving every restriction we are still legally authorized to enforce. We are maintaining the 100-yard safety zones around our schools, parks, libraries, and places of worship. These are the places where our children learn, and our families gather; they must remain safe."

Councilmember Dawn Luedtke, a Democrat who sponsored the bill, called it "a commonsense, balanced approach in Montgomery County’s local law to keep guns out of sensitive community spaces."

The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), which represents the plaintiffs, laid out its concerns in a statement published Thursday.

“Montgomery County’s law prevents our client from defending its members from the threat of anti-Semitic attacks and from fulfilling their religious obligations,” said NCLA Senior Litigation Counsel Jacob Huebert. “It brazenly violates the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, and the Fourteenth Amendment, and the courts should swiftly strike it down.”

“Montgomery County’s ordinance flies in the teeth of the Supreme Court’s recent Second Amendment rulings,” said NCLA President and Chief Legal Officer Mark Chenoweth. “If states cannot flip the presumption and forbid carrying a legal firearm without advance permission from various premises, then surely municipalities cannot go a step further and bar premises from giving permission. It boggles the mind in the current anti-Semitic climate that the County would deny a synagogue the ability to defend worshipers as it sees fit.”