Churches in Minnesota may continue to ban firearms from most of their property, including parking lots and spaces leased to tenants, under a religious freedom exception to the state's liberalized handgun law, a judge has ruled.

In the latest in a string of legal victories for churches that have challenged the law since its initial enactment in 2003, Hennepin County District Judge William Howard issued a permanent injunction late Tuesday granting the relief they sought.

Thanks to earlier temporary injunctions, churches have never been bound by the law's restrictions on where and how owners of nonresidential property may prohibit the carrying of firearms.

But David Lillehaug, one of the churches' attorneys, described Howard's ruling Wednesday as "a powerful and eloquent vindication of the right of Minnesotans to protect the religious character of religious properties."

The decision means that Lillehaug's Edina Community Lutheran Church can go on legally barring gun-toters with its signs saying "Blessed are the peacemakers. Firearms are prohibited in this place of sanctuary" rather than the language set down by law. Other churches may choose their own wording if they wish to designate their premises as gun-free.

It also means that parking lots, day-care centers and other charitable, educational and nonprofit facilities owned by churches may be posted to ban firearms. Howard ruled such church properties "integral to their religious mission."

Therefore, he said, portions of the law violate guarantees of freedom of conscience and association in the state and U.S. Constitutions. His ruling, however, has no effect on most of the law's provisions, including its mandate that sheriffs issue permits to carry handguns to applicants 21 and older who receive prescribed training and pass a background check.

How significant a ruling?

A gun-rights leader said Wednesday that the ruling came as no surprise and did little to limit the law under which tens of thousands of Minnesotans have become licensed to carry guns in public.

"It's not a very significant victory," said Joe Olson, president of the Gun Owners' Civil Rights Alliance and a chief drafter of the handgun law. "It doesn't cripple the law. The churches still have to give notice" if they want to ban guns.

The only penalty for violating a gun ban is a petty misdemeanor and a fine of up to $25.

Of the 40 states with similar handgun laws, 13 explicitly exempt churches from restrictions applying to other property. When Minnesota's law was repassed in 2005 to overcome another legal difficulty, legislators debated, but did not include, such an exemption.

Olson's group opposed the exemption. "There weren't the votes for it," he said, adding that legislators agreed that no change they made would be likely to stand up in court.

Howard's ruling resolves the issue unless State Attorney General Mike Hatch appeals, but spokeswoman Amy Brendmoen said no decision has been made. Olson said an appeal should be lodged because the injunction covers non-worship spaces and because it could threaten laws that require uniform fire exit and handicapped parking signs on church property.

To Lillehaug, however, whose Minneapolis law firm of Fredrikson & Byron took the case without a fee, the ruling establishes that "religious institutions have the right to use their tax-exempt property as they see fit."

Only the Edina church and Unity Church-Unitarian of St. Paul litigated the case, but Lillehaug said, "We could have had hundreds of plaintiffs if we wanted them."

Conrad deFiebre • 651-222-1673 • cdefiebre@startribune.com