The U.S. Supreme Court handed gun owners a major victory Thursday, ruling that the federal government can’t automatically strip someone of their Second Amendment rights simply because they use marijuana.
In a unanimous decision, the Court sided with Texas resident Ali Danial Hemani, a man who admitted he uses marijuana several times a week but wasn’t accused of violence, brandishing a firearm, drug trafficking, or doing anything reckless with a gun.
According to reporting from the Associated Press and Reuters, the case has been closely watched because it sits at the intersection of expanding marijuana legalization and the Supreme Court’s post-Bruen Second Amendment jurisprudence.
Yet the federal government still wanted to prosecute him. Why?
Because under federal law, marijuana remains a controlled substance, and prosecutors argued that Hemani’s marijuana use alone was enough to make him a prohibited person under 18 U.S.C. §922(g)(3).
The Supreme Court wasn’t buying it.