A district court has ordered New York to pay over $817,000 in attorneys’ fees to settle a lawsuit against a state ban on people carrying firearms in houses of worship.
In 2022, His Tabernacle Family Church and its pastor, Micheal Spencer, sued the state over a law prohibiting firearms in certain areas, including church properties.
The United States District Court for the Western District of New York issued a decision and order on Tuesday, requiring the state to pay $817,636.50 in attorneys’ fees, plus $7,166.60 in other costs.
U.S. District Judge John L. Sinatra Jr., a Trump appointee, authored the order, writing that “the facts and circumstances of this case justify granting Plaintiffs’ request in full.”
“Indeed, this is the type of rare and important case with broader implications in terms of the state of the law that justify the most highly specialized and highly qualified counsel — irrespective of geography,” wrote Sinatra.
His Tabernacle Family Church and Spencer were represented by First Liberty Institute (FLI), along with the law firms of Clement & Murphy PLLC and Ganguly Brothers PLLC.
“We applaud the court’s decision to grant attorneys’ fees in full,” said FLI Senior Counsel Jeremy Dys in a statement provided to The Christian Post.
“The court recognized the dedication to and expertise in the defense of the First Amendment by His Tabernacle’s legal team and reminds lawmakers that it is expensive to ignore the clear guidance of the U.S. Supreme Court.”
“This decision confirms what Congress intended: if the government violates the civil rights of Americans, you will pay their attorneys.”
In July 2022, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Concealed Carry Improvement Act, which, among other things, required people seeking a concealed carry license to be of “good moral character” and banned concealed carry in “sensitive locations,” such as church sanctuaries.
Hochul stated in a press release at the time that she was “taking swift and bold action to protect New Yorkers” and was “proud to sign this landmark legislative package that will strengthen our gun laws and bolster restrictions on concealed carry weapons.”
New York Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins also added at the time that she believed “we are stepping up to protect New York from being easily flooded with concealed weapons and keeping firearms out of the wrong hands.”
“These measures, in addition to the previous anti-gun violence legislation we passed, are vital in a time when there are more guns than people in America,” said Stewart-Cousins, as quoted in the 2022 press release.
The church and Spencer sued in November 2022, with Sinatra ruling against the state and concluding that New York’s law violated the U.S. Constitution.
In December 2023, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit released a 261-page opinion regarding four cases centered on multiple challenges to the ban, likewise ruling against the ban.
“It’s hard to see how the law advances the interests of religious organizations, as a whole, by denying them agency to choose for themselves whether to permit firearms,” the appeals court panel concluded.
Recently, in response to an apparent uptick in violence against houses of worship, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a guide to help better secure sanctuaries.
Titled “Physical Security Performance Goals for Faith-Based Communities” and released in 2023, the guide provided a set of security practices that congregations can implement geared toward providing “the right balance between security and accessibility.”
Last month, the Family Research Council released its latest “Hostility against Churches in the United States” report, which found that last year, there were 415 reported hostile acts against churches across 43 states, which affected 383 houses of worship.
