Supreme Court sides with marijuana user who was barred from owning guns

Supreme Court sides with marijuana user who was barred from owning guns

The court ruled that the law used to prosecute a marijuana user violated his Second Amendment right to bear arms and is unconstitutionally vague.

By Grady Martin, Nina Totenberg

The Supreme Court found Thursday that the government's prosecution of a marijuana user for owning guns was inconsistent with the Second Amendment.

The decision was unanimous.

"The Court's decision is narrow," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote. "It does not address efforts to ban addicts or those presently intoxicated from possessing a firearm; other prophylactic laws Congress might adopt after determining that users of a particular drug pose a special risk of misusing firearms ... provision disarming individuals convicted of felonies; or whether the government could bring a prosecution ... accompanied by individualized proof that the defendant's drug use renders him a danger to himself or others, or proof that a certain drug always renders its users dangerous."

The case stems from the arrest of Ali Hemani. In 2022, federal agents found a pistol and 60 grams of marijuana in a search of Hemani's home. When asked, Hemani told the agents that he uses marijuana "about every other day," according to court filings. On the basis of his drug use and gun ownership, the government convicted Hemani of violating the law at issue in this case. This is the same law that was used to convict President Biden's son Hunter in 2024.

Hemani challenged the law as unconstitutional, contending that it violated his Second Amendment right to bear arms and is unconstitutionally vague.

The law prevents "unlawful" drug users from owning guns, but as his lawyers pointed out in filings to the Supreme Court, "the statute does not define 'unlawful user.'"

To enforce the law against Hemani, they argued in court filings, "would empower the government to deprive tens of millions of Americans who pose little if any risk of firearm misuse of a fundamental constitutional right."

Adding to the issues in the case is that marijuana is to some degree legal in more than 40 states. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, more than 15 percent of Americans aged 12 or older used marijuana in 2024.

The government contended that the law was not vague, and that it only used the law against "habitual users" of illegal drugs. Further, the government said that laws like this one are similar to laws from the founding, when states restricted the gun rights of "habitual drunkards." But Hemani's lawyers responded that the phrase "habitual user" is no less vague than "unlawful user."

The Supreme Court agreed with Hemani's concerns.

But the court did not disregard concerns about drug users possessing guns, as Gorsuch wrote.