A Georgia judge on Wednesday tossed out the case against a man who was cited for violating a Savannah city ordinance prohibiting guns in unlocked vehicles, ruling that the ordinance violates state law and the U.S. Constitution.

Clayton Papp was cited by Savannah police for violating the ordinance, which imposes fines and possible jail time for leaving guns in unlocked cars, in August 2024. His attorney asked the judge presiding over his case to throw out the citation.

The ruling by Chatham County Recorder's Court Judge Brian Joseph Huffman Jr. likely only applies to Papp's case, as he challenged the ordinance as part of his criminal defense.

Savannah's mayor said the city will continue to enforce the rule.

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"We’ve had this in existence now for quite some time, and we have reduced the number of guns stolen from unlocked vehicles in Savannah," Democrat Mayor Van Johnson told reporters.

Johnson has pushed the gun ordinance as a way to urge responsible gun ownership without infringing on their rights to own or carry firearms. He said on Wednesday that the number of guns stolen from unlocked cars reported to Savannah police dipped from more than 200 in 2023 to just over 100 this year.

Savannah's city council voted unanimously last year to prohibit firearms in unlocked vehicles, with violators subject to maximum penalties of a $1,000 fine and 30 days in jail.

Proponents of the measure argued that the law would make it harder for criminals to steal firearms in the Peach State, where Republican state lawmakers have made it easier to own and carry guns.

"Concerns over firearms stolen from vehicles and later used in violent crime are in fact concerning," the judge said in his ruling. "Good intentions, however, do not immunize legislation from constitutional scrutiny."

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Huffman Jr. threw out the case in a ruling on Wednesday that declared Savannah's ordinance "void and unenforceable."

The judge said the ordinance violates a state law that prohibits local governments from regulating "the possession, ownership, transport, (or) carrying" of firearms.

He also ruled that the ordinance "burdens conduct covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment."

Georgia Republican Attorney General Chris Carr celebrated the ruling as "a major victory for law-abiding gun owners, who shouldn’t be punished for the actions of criminals & thieves."

While the judge found that Savannah's ordinance is illegal, the ruling likely only applies to Papp's case because the challenge was raised as part of a criminal defense and not a broader lawsuit seeking an injunction to stop further enforcement, Anthony Michael Kreis, a Georgia State University law professor, told The Associated Press.

"In theory, the city could continue to enforce the ordinance and leave it to individual defendants to raise this question again as a defense," Kreis said.

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A separate lawsuit brought by another gun owner aiming to halt enforcement of the ordinance was dismissed last year by a different judge in Chatham County Superior Court, ruling that the gun owner in that case lacked standing to file the lawsuit because he was not a Savannah resident and had not been cited under the ordinance.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

U.S. Catholic bishops voted on Wednesday to officially declare a ban on gender transition treatment for transgender patients at Catholic hospitals.

The bishops, gathered in a Baltimore hotel ballroom, overwhelmingly approved revisions to their directives for the thousands of Catholic health care institutions and providers in the country, formalizing a yearslong process for the U.S. church to address transgender treatment options.

Bishops will have autonomy in putting the new directives into law for their dioceses.

More than one in seven patients in the U.S. are treated each day at Catholic hospitals, according to the Catholic Health Association. In some areas, Catholic hospitals are the only medical centers available.

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Most Catholic health care institutions have not offered gender transition treatment, including hormonal, psychological and surgical treatments.

"With regard to the gender ideology, I think it’s very important the church makes a strong statement here," Bishop Robert Barron of Minnesota’s Winona-Rochester diocese said during the public discussion of the revised directives.

The Catholic Health Association thanked the bishops for incorporating much of its feedback into the new directives.

"Catholic providers will continue to welcome those who seek medical care from us and identify as transgender," the organization said in a statement. "We will continue to treat these individuals with dignity and respect, which is consistent with Catholic social teaching and our moral obligation to serve everyone, particularly those who are marginalized."

The new directives incorporate earlier documents on gender identity from the Vatican last year and the U.S. bishops the year before.

In the 2023 doctrinal note titled "Moral Limits to the Technological Manipulation of the Human Body," the bishops stated that "Catholic health care services must not perform interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex, or take part in the development of such procedures."

But some parishes and priests welcome transgender Catholics, while others are less accepting.

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"Catholic teaching upholds the invaluable dignity of every human life, and for many trans people, gender-affirming care is what makes life livable," said Michael Sennett, a transgender man who is active in his Massachusetts parish and serves on the board of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Catholic Church.

New Ways Ministry arranged a meeting last year with the late Pope Francis to discuss gender transition treatment.

The group's executive director, Francis DeBernardo, said that for many transgender Catholics he has spoken to, "the transition process was not just a biological necessity, but a spiritual imperative," adding: "That if they were going to be living as authentic people in the way that they believe God made them, then transition becomes a necessary thing."

Also on Wednesday, as U.S. Catholic bishops were discussing gender identity, the heads of several progressive religious denominations issued a statement in support of transgender people.

"During a time when our country is placing their lives under increasingly serious threat, there is a disgraceful misconception that all people of faith do not affirm the full spectrum of gender – a great many of us do. Let it be known instead that our beloveds are created in the image of God – Holy and whole," reads the statement from the 10 signers, including the heads of the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Episcopal Church, the Union for Reform Judaism and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

In addition to the Catholic bishops' discussion on gender identity, they overwhelmingly approved a "special message" condemning the Trump administration's immigration agenda.

Catholic leaders have criticized the president's mass deportation agenda, as fear of immigration raids has slashed Mass attendance at some parishes.

The federal government earlier this year reversed a Biden administration directive for immigration agents not to carry out enforcement operations at sensitive areas such as churches and hospitals.

"We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement," the bishops’ statement on Wednesday reads. "We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care."

Several bishops also stood up to speak in favor of the statement during the final afternoon discussion.

Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich even recommended stronger language around mass deportation, and his fellow bishops agreed.

"That seems to be the central issue we are facing with our people at this time," he said.

The updated text now affirms that U.S. Catholic bishops "oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.