Supreme Court Says Government Cannot Bar Drug Users From Owning Guns Under Second Amendment

The Supreme Court says a federal law prohibiting the possession of firearms by a person who simply admits to regular drug use violates the Second Amendment.The court decided unanimously Thursday, in United States v. Hemani, that the statute — also used to convict Hunter Biden — cannot block gun ownership without the government proving more than regular use of a controlled substance.Federal prosecutors charged Ali Danial Hemani with one count of violating the statue in February 2023, several months after confiscating a gun from his home. The Texas man was investigated for a possible connection with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and, when FBI agents searched his home, they found a pistol and marijuana. The government sought to jail Mr. Hemani for 15 years and permanently bar him from owning guns.The Trump administration claimed the ban is a justifiable restriction. The administration’s lawyers stated that regular drug users pose a serious public safety risk.“This restriction provides a modest, modern analogue of much harsher founding-era restrictions on habitual drunkards, and so it stands solidly within our Nation’s history and tradition of regulation,” the government wrote in its filing to the Supreme Court. It says the law targets “habitual” drug users and not anyone who has occasionally used drugsMr. Hemani’s attorneys argued that the broadly written law puts millions of people who have used marijuana at risk of losing their gun rights. His lawyers also suggested the government did not establish a historical precedent for the law.Justice Neil Gorsuch agreed, writing in his opinion, “And, apart from pointing to habitual drunkard laws, the government has not even attempted to prove that any other specific historical principle might justify its prosecution in this case.”The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Rifle Association both supported Mr. Hemani’s case. “With nearly half of Americans reporting marijuana use at some point in their lives, this ruling protects the rights of millions and curbs the government’s ability to impose arbitrary and discriminatory penalties,” the legal director at the ACLU, Cecillia Wang, said in a statement.“The court has sent a strong message that the government cannot criminalize the conduct of large numbers of people by making categorical and unfounded assumptions about whether they are dangerous,” Ms. Wang continued.Justice Gorsuch said the ruling is narrow in that it does not address efforts to ban addicts from possessing firearms. Hunter Biden was convicted of buying a gun in 2018 while he was addicted to cocaine. President Biden later pardoned him.Hemani is the latest in a string of cases the courts have faced since the landmark 2022 New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen decision that expanded the right to carry firearms in public and established historical “tests” for gun laws.

Supreme Court Says Government Cannot Bar Drug Users From Owning Guns Under Second Amendment

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