Maryland Synagogue Asks Appeals Court to Let Its Members Stay Protected on the Sabbath Walk to Prayer

Members of an Orthodox Jewish congregation in Silver Spring, Maryland, are asking a federal appeals court to let them protect themselves on the one trip each week their faith will not let them drive: the walk to and from synagogue on the Sabbath. The Silver Spring Jewish Center went to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Tuesday, the Daily Caller reported, seeking to block a Montgomery County rule that bans guns within 100 yards of houses of worship and other public gathering places.

The congregation has already won part of its fight. In September, a federal judge ruled that members could carry firearms inside the synagogue while the lawsuit moves forward, according to the Washington Examiner, but the same order left the county's 100-yard buffer in force. The plaintiffs, the synagogue and congregant Menashe Shapiro, an ordained rabbi, argue that the rule still violates their Second Amendment right to armed self-defense and their First Amendment right to practice their faith freely.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance filed the request on Nov. 10, asking for a preliminary injunction that would let members carry while walking between their homes and the synagogue.

Orthodox Jews do not drive on the Sabbath, so members must walk, and the synagogue relies on an armed volunteer security team whose members are all licensed to carry under Maryland law, the Daily Caller reported. In a crowded suburb, the walk to services inevitably passes within 100 yards of schools, parks and other houses of worship, the plaintiffs say, which makes it impossible to carry lawfully from front door to sanctuary door.

That leaves the congregation's volunteer guards armed inside the building but unarmed on the sidewalk outside it, the result the synagogue is now asking the appeals court to fix.

The synagogue is also leaning on the Supreme Court's 2022 Bruen decision, which requires a government defending a gun restriction to show it fits the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation. The plaintiffs told the appeals court that the county has pointed to no historical tradition of banning firearms within 100 yards of churches, synagogues, parks or schools, Reason reported.

The stakes reach well beyond one congregation. The county's definition of a place of public assembly covers places of worship, schools and government buildings, which means every church, parish and synagogue in Maryland's most populous county falls under the same 100-yard rule. A law that disarms licensed volunteers on the way to worship asks the faithful to choose between keeping the Sabbath and keeping their families safe, and that is a choice the Constitution was written to spare them.

Montgomery County enacted the rule in July. Its backers, including County Council member Natali Fani-González, have described it as one of several commonsense measures against gun violence, the Daily Caller reported.

The county won a round in a separate case this week. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang dismissed the Justice Department's lawsuit against the ordinance with prejudice and denied its request for a preliminary injunction, Bethesda Magazine reported. Chuang found that the police-misconduct statute the department sued under did not cover this kind of challenge, and he did not decide whether the ordinance violates the Second Amendment. A department spokesperson said officials were weighing the ruling and their next steps, and County Executive Marc Elrich welcomed the decision. Bethesda Magazine also noted that another federal judge earlier declined to block the ordinance in a broader challenge brought by Maryland Shall Issue and several gun owners.

The congregation's worries are not abstract. FBI figures released in August counted 1,528 anti-Jewish hate crime incidents in 2025, about 63 percent of the 2,408 religion-based incidents reported nationwide, according to the Anti-Defamation League. That was down from a record 1,938 in 2024, but it still made 2025 the third-worst year on record.

Christians know the danger too. This week a federal judge in Idaho, David C. Nye, sentenced a 21-year-old Coeur d'Alene man to 18 years in prison and lifetime supervised release for attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State in a plot aimed at churches in his hometown, Townhall reported.

What comes next is in the Fourth Circuit's hands. The appeals court will decide whether members can carry on the Sabbath walk while the case continues, and the Justice Department can still appeal its own loss. Scripture records that Nehemiah's builders worked with a tool in one hand and a weapon in the other as they rebuilt Jerusalem's walls. The families of the Silver Spring Jewish Center are asking for something far more modest: the freedom to walk to prayer able to defend the people they love.