Published August 3, 2026 at 7:45 PM ET · Updated August 4, 2026 at 10:06 AM ET
Trump DOJ sues county over gun ban inside churches
2 independent outlets are covering this story, first reported here by Daily Caller. Verification: Corroborated (how we verify). Every headline links to the original reporting.
President Donald Trump's Department of Justice has sued a Maryland county over a gun ban in churches. The lawsuit argues that congregants have a right to protect themselves.
Patriot Watch first flagged this story 15 hr ago, when Daily Caller reported it. Coverage has since grown to 2 independent outlets. The most recent report came 2 hr ago from WND.
⚖ The Constitutional Angle
Heller recognized an individual right to firearms for self-defense but noted that bans on carrying in sensitive places remain presumptively lawful. Bruen then required governments to prove any restriction fits the Nation's historical tradition. The county's church ban stands or falls on whether it can show churches are sensitive places with historical analogues.
District of Columbia v. Heller 554 U.S. 570 (2008)
Vote: 5-4 · Opinion: Scalia
The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia and to use it for traditionally lawful purposes such as self-defense within the home. The right is not unlimited: the Court noted that longstanding prohibitions (e.g., possession by felons and the mentally ill, carrying in sensitive places, conditions on commercial sale) remain presumptively lawful. D.C.'s ban on handgun possession in the home and its requirement that lawful firearms in the home be kept nonfunctional violate the Second Amendment.
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Kevin P. Bruen, Superintendent of New York State Police 597 U.S. 1 (2022)
Vote: 6-3 · Opinion: Thomas
New York's requirement that applicants demonstrate 'proper cause' — a special need for self-protection distinguishable from the general community — to obtain an unrestricted public-carry license violates the Fourteenth Amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public. The Court held the Second Amendment protects a right to carry handguns publicly for self-defense, and rejected the two-step means-end framework lower courts had applied after Heller.
Precedent facts from the PW Law Library — primary-source verified & independently audited
