Overview
- On Thursday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 in United States v. Hemani that applying 18 U.S.C. §922(g)(3) to a man who regularly used marijuana violated the Second Amendment in the circumstances before the court.
- Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a narrow opinion that rejected the Justice Department’s historical analogy to 19th‑century laws disarming “habitual drunkards” and relied on the Court’s post‑Bruen history‑and‑tradition test.
- The facts: federal agents searched Ali Danial Hemani’s family home in 2022, found a Glock, about 60 grams of marijuana and small amounts of cocaine, and Hemani told agents he used marijuana roughly every other day.
- The Court expressly left open whether Congress or prosecutors may disarm addicts, people shown to be actively intoxicated, or individuals proven to be dangerous, so the decision limits but does not eliminate enforcement of §922(g)(3).
- The ruling affects hundreds of past and potential prosecutions under the statute, touches the same law used in the Hunter Biden case, and is likely to produce new lower‑court fights and possible congressional or regulatory responses.