Supreme Court rules for marijuana user prosecuted for gun possession

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday the government can’t criminally prosecute a man for possessing a firearm simply because he regularly smoked marijuana, rejecting the government’s comparison to the disarmament habitual drunkards in the founding era.

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that it violates his right to keep arms under the conservative justices’ expanded Second Amendment test. It requires gun control measures be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.

“To square that expansive theory with the Second Amendment, the government invites us to draw an analogy between its present regulation and historical laws addressing habitual drunkards,” Gorsuch wrote.

“Those laws, the government contends, demonstrate a tradition of firearm regulation consistent with its effort to disarm any regular user of any controlled substance without any further showing,” he continued. “But the government’s analogy fails under every measure it asks us to consider.”

Though the decision raises the bar for future prosecutions, it leaves the door open for defendants to still be convicted if the government can prove they are using illegal drugs at the time they are found with a gun.

Ali Hemani, a dual U.S.-Pakistani citizen, was indicted under the statute after law enforcement searched his home and found a Glock 9 mm pistol and marijuana. They also found cocaine, but the gun charge relies only on the marijuana.

The government does not claim Hemani was high on marijuana at the time of the search. But he admitted to law enforcement that he smoked it every other day.

Like other defendants charged under the statute — including Hunter Biden, until his father pardoned him — Hemani argued he can’t be prosecuted following the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment test it laid out in 2022.

As the court unanimously sided Hemani, two of the liberal justices signaled they still disagree with the test. (Source: The Hill)