The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday sided with sanity on the issue of gun possession and marijuana use. The outcome of US v. Hemani is welcome news as the high court session is drawing to a close after providing mixed results on gun rights.
In a surprise 9-0 decision, justices determined that habitually using marijuana does not negate Second Amendment rights. The case involved a Texas man found with marijuana and a handgun during an FBI raid of his home.
Marijuana use alone no longer erases Second Amendment rights
Ali Hemani freely admitted to federal agents in 2022 that he regularly used cannabis. He cooperated with the authorities and handed over his firearm.
Six months passed, and out of the blue, the government charged him with violating the federal law that prohibits the combination of weapons and drugs. He could have served as much as 15 years in prison and had his gun rights permanently stripped.
The Justice Department initially prosecuted Hemani only for having a firearm in his home and for admitting to using marijuana. The DOJ later asserted that the dual U.S. and Pakistan citizen dealt harder drugs and linked him to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
In other words, known terrorists.
Even a questionable defendant did not deter the Supreme Court
That obviously did not concern a panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals considering his predicament. In January, the court determined that regular marijuana use alone does not erase gun rights, but it did not end Hemani’s ordeal.
The Justice Department responded by appealing to the high court to decide the case. Remember, this is not an ideal candidate to present to the Supreme Court to resolve the issue, which was likely the DOJ’s intention from the start.
But even the question over possible ties to a terror organization did not sway the lower court, and it obviously did not influence the high court’s decision.
Oral arguments in March did not touch on Hemani’s history or possible ties to a terror group. Instead, they attacked the application of historical laws against “habitual drunkards” to attempt to get around the Bruen test.
Thursday’s ruling was a complete rejection of this argument.
“But the government’s analogy fails under every measure it asks us to consider: The historical laws on which it relies targeted different kinds of people, do so for different reasons, and in different ways,” Justice Neil Gorsuch explained in the majority opinion.
“And faced with all these shortcomings in the government’s submission, we cannot say it has carried its conceded burden of showing its prosecution of Mr. Hemani complies with the Second Amendment.”
Gorsuch raised questions about the accused’s marijuana habit. “But how much marijuana does Mr. Hemani use, in what potency, and to what effect? Is he routinely unable to manage his affairs, a risk to himself or his family? Or does he use a mild gummy as a sleep aid a few times a week?”
Whatever the answers to these questions may be, under federal law, he automatically fell into the “habitual drunkard” designation.
Justice Samuel Alito concurred with the ruling, noting that “marijuana use today is like alcohol use at the founding. It is widespread and increasingly considered socially acceptable in many quarters. And, from a practical standpoint, law enforcement widely tolerates the use of marijuana.”
Some justices offered their views on other gun rights issues swirling around the nation.
Longtime Justice Clarence Thomas, perhaps the jurist with the most dedication to preserving Second Amendment rights, expressed uncertainty that Congress, under the Commerce Clause, even has the authority to make the possession of a firearm that crosses state lines illegal.
Then there were Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor, who surprisingly agreed with their colleagues.
They concurred but threw out their belief that the Bruen test over the historical tradition of U.S. gun control should be eradicated. But the marijuana issue was so open-and-shut that even they could not muster the will to reject the majority.
To be clear, the high court emphasized that the ruling does not affect attempts to keep those currently intoxicated, addicts to harder drugs, or convicted felons from possessing a firearm.
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