Overview
- The Supreme Court unanimously held on Thursday, June 18, 2026, that applying the unlawful‑user provision of the 1968 Gun Control Act to a routine marijuana user violated the Second Amendment and affirmed dismissal of Ali Danial Hemani’s prosecution.
- Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that the government failed to meet the Court’s Bruen history‑and‑tradition test and that historical laws about “habitual drunkards” were not a close enough analogue to justify automatically disarming regular drug users.
- The opinion is narrowly framed: it blocks blanket prosecutions of routine users but expressly leaves open lawful disarmament of addicts, people shown to be dangerous, and those actively intoxicated.
- The ruling will make routine §922(g)(3) prosecutions harder and is likely to prompt new litigation over edge cases while putting pressure on Congress and the Justice Department to craft narrower, evidence‑based standards or specific carve‑outs.
- The case highlights the tension between expanding state marijuana laws and federal drug and gun statutes, and it drew an unusual coalition of supporters across the political spectrum from civil liberties, gun‑rights, and marijuana‑reform groups.