The Volokh Conspiracy

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Guns

Court Allows Maryland Rabbi (and Apparently Congregation's Volunteer Security Guards) Right to Carry Guns in Synagogue

|The Volokh Conspiracy |


An Montgomery County ordinance bans all carrying of guns at places of worship (except by security guards licensed to carry a gun), even when the administrators of the place want to allow such carrying. The decision yesterday by Judge Deborah Chasanow (D. Md.) in Silver Spring Jewish Center v. Montgomery County is long, and also deals with some other matters. But, among other things, it concludes that the ordinance likely violates the Second Amendment and, because it sets up a special limitation on places of worship, the Free Exercise Clause.

Andrew Morris and Jacob Huebert of the New Civil Liberties Alliance represent the synagogue; Rabbi Menashe Shapiro, who is also a law student, represents himself.

Eugene Volokh is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, and the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA School of Law. Naturally, his posts here (like the opinions of the other bloggers) are his own, and not endorsed by any institution. He is also the co-host of the Free Speech Unmuted podcast.