Getty Images/Cristian Bortes/EyeEm A federal judge has temporarily blocked the state of New York from enforcing its new law banning guns in houses of worship against a pastor and church who argue that the law violates their constitutional rights. Judge John L. Sinatra Jr. of the Western District of New York ruled last Thursday that Senate Bill S51001 , which prohibits carrying firearms in "sensitive locations," including houses of worship, violated the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The law was passed last July. Although he issued the injunction, Sinatra stayed the ruling pending an appeal. "Plaintiffs have demonstrated that the State permits countless other private actors hosting secular activities to do what a house of worship may not. The houses of worship exclusion is not a neutral law of general applicability," Sinatra, a Trump appointee, wrote in the ruling. The lawsuit was filed by the legal nonprofit First Liberty Institute and the law firms Clement & Murphy PLLC and Ganguly Brothers PLLC on behalf of His Tabernacle Family Church in Horseheads. Pastor Micheal Spencer founded the nondenominational Christian church. The Democrat-controlled state Senate approved the bill on a party-line vote as the Democrat-controlled Assembly approved the bill over […]
