(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- A U.S. District Judge blocked a New York law that banned guns in places of worship on October 20. Judge John Sinatra, who was nominated by former President Trump in 2018, reportedly issued a temporary restraining order against the state of New York for implementing its “Concealed Carry Improvement Act.”
The law under question criminalizes possession of firearms in “any place of worship or religious observation,” according to The Blaze. The prohibition extends to public parks, hospitals, and any local or federal government property.
Sinatra claimed held that the New York law was more restrictive than the law that was struck down by the Supreme Court in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. The Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that Americans were protected by the Constitution to carry guns outside their homes.
“Because the State of New York issues public-carry licenses only when an applicant demonstrates a special need for self-defense, we conclude that the State’s licensing regime violates the Constitution,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote.
Democrats were livid about the decision, with President Joe Biden saying that “the ruling contradicts both common sense and the Constitution and should deeply trouble us all,” adding that “lives are on the line.”
Sinatra wrote that Americans’ right to protect themselves is no limited to one place or the other.
The “nation’s history does not countenance such an incursion into the right to keep and bear arms across all places of worship across the state…The right to self-defense is no less important and no less recognized at these places,” he wrote, adding that the New York law “creates a vulnerable population of attendees at places of worship left to the whims of potential armed wrongdoers who are uninterested in following the law in any event.”
Sinatra will hear additional arguments on November 3. Other lawsuits were reportedly filed October 4 by 25 other churches and the nonprofit New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, alleging that the plaintiffs’ Second and Fourth Amendment rights are being violated.
