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(AP) - A judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday that said churches don't have to comply with some requirements of the state's new concealed-carry gun law.

Edina Community Lutheran Church had filed suit to block parts of the law, claiming it's unconstitutional for the state to require churches that want to ban guns to post signs and tell parishioners.

Hennepin County District Judge Marilyn Brown Rosenbaum granted the church's request for a temporary restraining order against the signage and personal notification requirements. The church's attorney, David Lillehaug, said that means the numerous churches now involved in the lawsuit may notify people as they see fit.

"This is the legal equivalent of a blue moon," Lillehaug said. "It's not very often that a judge in the early stages finds a law unconstitutional."

The churches considered the notification requirements an infringement on their freedom of religion.

"This is a great step in our efforts to exercise religious freedom," said Pam Fickenscher, co-pastor of Edina Community Lutheran Church.

More than 40 other churches have joined the lawsuit. And on Wednesday, the state's Roman Catholic bishops voted to participate. The vote covered the archdioceses of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Crookston, Duluth, New Ulm. St. Cloud and Winona.

The new law paved the way for most Minnesotans to obtain permits to carry handgun after fulfilling some basic requirements. An attempt in the recent special session to modify the law to meet some of the churches' concerns failed.

Rep. Lynda Boudreau, R-Faribault, who sponsored the House version of the bill, was in Washington and unavailable for comment, her husband said.

The Senate sponsor, Pat Pariseau, R-Farmington, did not immediately return a phone calls seeking comment, nor did Joe Olson, president of Concealed Carry Reform Now, whose group was formed in 1996 to push for the law change.