The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruled against a federal ban prohibiting casual drug users from owning guns, effectively barring the federal government from restricting gun rights to marijuana users.
In a unanimous decision, the justices ruled in favor of Ali Danial Hemani, a Texas man charged by federal prosecutors after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) discovered a handgun during a house search in 2022.
Gun Control Act of 1968
The federal statute, 18 U.S.C. § 922, enacted in 1968 as part of the Gun Control Act, makes it a crime for any individual who is “an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance” to possess a firearm.
Those convicted under the law can face up to 15 years in prison and a permanent ban on firearm possession.
The Court's Opinion
The ruling, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, affirmed that the “narrow” decision does not invalidate the statute broadly. It does, however, make it more difficult for prosecutors to invoke it, most specifically as it relates to casual drug users.
Gorsuch asserted that although the law was originally meant to prevent dangerous people from obtaining guns, millions of people now use marijuana.
“Whatever one thinks of these developments, the federal government has not just tolerated them; it helped fuel them,” Gorsuch wrote. “All of which leaves it awkwardly positioned to suggest that the millions of Americans who now regularly use marijuana are categorically and unusually dangerous.”
The Same Law That Got Biden
The statute used against Hemani is the same one invoked against former U.S. President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. In June 2024, Biden was convicted in Wilmington, Delaware, of purchasing a firearm while having a cocaine addiction in 2018.
President Biden later pardoned his son in December 2024, prior to leaving office.
Gorsuch Addresses Addicts
In the ruling, Gorsuch addressed substance abusers and addicts, writing:
“We do not address efforts to ban addicts, or those presently intoxicated, from possessing a firearm. Prosecutors could charge a marijuana user if they had evidence the person was dangerous.”
