WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will consider whether people who regularly smoke marijuana can legally own guns. This is the latest firearms case to come before the court since the 2022 decision expanding gun rights.
President Donald Trump’s administration asked judges to reopen a case against a Texas man who was charged with a felony for allegedly having a gun in his home and admitting to being a regular marijuana user. The Justice Department appealed after a lower court largely struck down a law banning people who apply illegal drugs from owning guns.
Last year, a jury convicted Hunter Biden of, among other things, violating the law. His father, then-President Joe Biden, later pardoned him.
The disputes are expected to take place in early 2026, and the decision should be made by early summer.
The Republican administration supports Second Amendment rights, but government lawyers argued that this ban was a justified restriction.
They asked the court to reopen the case against Ali Danial Hemani. His lawyers got the felony charge dismissed after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the blanket ban was unconstitutional under the Supreme Court’s expanded view of gun rights. But the appeals judges concluded that it could still be used against people accused of being high and armed at the same time.
Hemani’s lawyers argue that the broad law puts millions of people at risk of technical violations because at least 20% of Americans have tried marijuana, according to government health data. About half of states have legalized recreational marijuana, but it is still illegal under federal law.
The Justice Department argues that the law is valid when used against regular drug users because they pose a earnest risk to public safety. The government said the FBI found Hemani’s gun and cocaine during a search of his home as they investigated travel and communications allegedly linked to Iran. But the firearms charge was the only one filed, and his lawyers said the other charges were irrelevant and were only mentioned to make him appear more threatening.
The case marks another flashpoint in the Supreme Court’s application of the recent test for firearms restrictions. The conservative majority concluded in 2022 that the Second Amendment generally gives people the right to bear arms in public for self-defense and that any firearm restrictions must have a powerful foundation in the country’s history.
The landmark 2022 ruling led to a cascade of challenges to firearms laws across the country, although justices have since upheld another federal law intended to protect victims of domestic violence by banning guns from those under restraining orders.
___
Follow AP coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.
