SCOTUS Strikes Outdated Marijuana Law
After months of deliberation, the U.S. Supreme Court arrived at a decision in United States v. Hemani on June 18, ruling that the federal government cannot automatically bar gun ownership for habitual users of marijuana. The justices unanimously agreed that the conviction of a Texas man for owning a gun while regularly using marijuana violated his 2nd Amendment rights.
The court’s primary argument? The conviction failed to pass the Bruen test. The justices wrote that historical analogues restricting gun rights for certain individuals “targeted different kinds of people, did so for different reasons, and operated in different ways” than the ban on firearms for users of controlled substances. Notably, the decision does not invalidate bans on gun ownership for drug addicts or users of specific dangerous drugs, but it does undo a long-standing overarching ban for users of controlled substances of any kind.
We concur with the court’s decision. Last October, we wrote the following about this case:
At 97Percent, we support laws that keep guns away from those with an elevated risk of committing a violent act while protecting the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners. In this case, a narrow ruling that allows the law to stand with a carve-out for users of legally obtained marijuana, with no criminal or domestic violence history, makes the most sense to us.
We’re glad the justices saw it the same way.
Check out our full deep dive on Hemani, with the details, history, and implications of this landmark case.