Theodore Chuang, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit challenging a Montgomery County firearms restriction on Monday, as the Silver Spring Jewish Center’s lawsuit challenging the restriction advanced to federal appeals court.
Chuang ruled that the Justice Department didn’t allege a pattern of constitutional violations by police but didn’t say if the heavily Jewish Maryland county’s gun restrictions violate the Second Amendment.
The judge also denied the department’s request for a preliminary injunction and ordered the case closed.
“The department is assessing the decision and next steps but remains committed to protecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens in Maryland,” the Justice Department told JNS.
The county’s ordinance prohibits guns in and within 100 yards of places of public assembly, including privately-owned houses of worship. The department sued in August to block enforcement.
The heavily Jewish county contains about 45% of Jews in the state.
In separate litigation, the Silver Spring Jewish Center, an Orthodox synagogue in the county with an attached school, secured protection allowing synagogue members to carry guns on its premises.
But Deborah Chasanow, another judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, declined to extend that protection to people walking to services. That essentially means that Orthodox congregants, who cannot drive on Shabbat and Jewish holidays, can’t arm themselves at Shabbat services.
“As it stands right now, the county is not allowed to enforce its firearms restrictions within the Silver Spring Jewish Center against members of the Silver Spring Jewish Center,” Menashe Shapiro, a plaintiff alongside the synagogue, told JNS.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit opened the synagogue’s appeal on Tuesday.
Shapiro told JNS on Tuesday that the appeal had opened and that the plaintiffs planned to ask the appellate court for an expanded injunction.
