The Silver Spring Jewish Center asked a federal appeals court this week to halt enforcement of a local Maryland law barring firearms within 100 yards of places of worship, arguing it blocks members from being armed for self-defense purposes amid growing threats to Jews around the country.
Montgomery County, Maryland, enacted a law in July that bars firearms within 100 yards of “a place of public assembly,” which includes places of worship, schools, and government buildings, among other places. The Silver Spring Jewish Center, an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, sued over the law, claiming it violates the First, Second, and 14th amendments, and asking for a federal court to bar enforcement against the Jewish center and its members.
The plaintiff claims in the lawsuit that the law prohibits members of the synagogue from being armed when they walk from home to the Jewish center in violation of their constitutional rights, because doing so would require them to be armed within 100 yards of a place of worship. Orthodox Jews must walk to communal prayer on the Sabbath according to their faith. The Jewish center, backed by the New Civil Liberties Alliance and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, asked a federal district court for an injunction, but the court declined to halt enforcement of the law.
The synagogue went to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit on Tuesday to ask for an injunction barring enforcement of the law against the members of the Silver Spring Jewish Center, emphasizing the need for members to be armed for self-defense amid a rising tide of antisemitism in recent years.
“The harm here recurs at least once per week: each Sabbath and Jewish holiday, Plaintiffs must choose between their religious obligation to walk to communal prayer and their obligation—and right—to be armed,” the court filing to the 4th Circuit reads.
Jacob Huebert, senior litigation counsel at the NCLA, said he is “hopeful” the appeals court will see the urgency of their request and “quickly block” the law’s enforcement.
“The Second Amendment protects everyone’s right to carry a firearm as they go about daily life,” Huebert said. “The First Amendment protects the right to freely exercise one’s religion. The 100-yard rule deprives Silver Spring Jewish Center members of both.”
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Montgomery County officials have been ordered to file a response to the synagogue’s request for an injunction by Tuesday. The 4th Circuit could issue a ruling on the request at any time but will likely wait until a response from county officials has been submitted.
The Maryland county bordering the District of Columbia has been the subject of various high-profile lawsuits involving religious liberty cases in recent years, with one of them, Mahmoud v. Taylor, making its way to the Supreme Court. In that June 2025 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of a group of parents who argued that the county school board’s policy preventing them from opting their children out of LGBT curriculum infringed on their religious freedom rights.