(The Center Square) — A Maryland synagogue is asking a federal judge to block a county government from enforcing a ban on firearms within 100 feet of schools, recreation centers, and other public locations.

In a new filing in U.S. District Court in Maryland, lawyers with the New Liberties Alliance called on the court to issue a preliminary injunction blocking portions of the Montgomery County law that weren't covered by a previous ruling allowing members of the Silver Spring Jewish Center to continue carrying firearms inside the synagogue while the legal challenge plays out.

That ruling concluded that the county’s ban on private citizens carrying firearms in "a place of public assembly" likely violates both the Second Amendment and the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion. But the court declined to include schools, courthouses, and other public buildings in its preliminary injunction.

Lawyers for the synagogue said that "makes it impossible for members to carry a firearm as they walk to and from the synagogue — as their religious beliefs require them to do on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays."

The plaintiffs will "continue to suffer irreparable harm absent relief, and the balance of equities" according to the new court filing, which said "there is public interest" in granting an injunction blocking the law in its entirety while the court considers the larger issues in the lawsuit.

“The court has rightly protected Silver Spring Jewish Center members' right to bear arms to defend themselves in their place of worship," Jacob Huebert, NCLA's senior litigation counsel, said in a statement. "For the very same reasons, it should also protect their right to carry their firearms as they walk between the synagogue and their homes, as their religious beliefs require."

The Alliance, along with The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, is representing the orthodox Jewish synagogue and its rabbi, J. Menashe Shapiro. In court filings, the plaintiffs say the law violates their Second Amendment rights and puts them in danger.

Montgomery County's firearm restrictions were updated earlier this year to ban firearms within 100 yards of what the county calls a "place of public assembly." That includes houses of worship, schools, parks, libraries, recreation centers, government buildings, polling places and courthouses.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs argued that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision makes the county law unconstitutional. In June, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Wolford v. Lopez⁠ that Hawaii could not ban permit holders from carrying firearms on private property unless the owner gave clear permission.

They said Montgomery County's law is illegal because it stops the synagogue from allowing its own members to carry guns on synagogue property and pointed to recent data on hate crimes in the county, suggesting that the Jewish community faces continued security concerns.

The Anti-Defamation League recorded 121 antisemitic incidents in Montgomery County in 2025⁠, the lawsuit noted. That was about two-thirds of the 181 incidents reported across Maryland, it said.

In the new filing, lawyers for the plaintiffs argue that the court in its decision not to include other public places in the preliminary injunction was based on an "incorrect Second Amendment standard" that was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark 2022 New York State Pistol & Rifle Association v. Bruen decision.

The Alliance said the synagogue members' request to the court is urgent with the upcoming Jewish holidays and the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks in Israel, which killed more than 1,200 civilians.