Oral arguments for U.S. v. Hemani began on March 2, a legal moment that will define gun ownership among marijuana users.
In 2022, FBI agents seized a pistol, marijuana and cocaine at Ali Hemani’s residence in Texas. Hemani was subsequently charged with violating federal law; a law that prohibits habitual users of an illegal substance from owning a gun. Hemani and his legal team pushed back, claiming the law was unconstitutional. After moving through appellate courts, the case now sits before the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS).
In New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn. v. Bruen, the Supreme Court ruled that laws regulating the right to bear arms violate the Second Amendment, setting an interesting precedent for the case at hand.
The question of unconstitutionality in Hemani’s case stems from the notion that the federal government deemed Hemani to be an “unlawful or habitual user” of cannabis, without proving intoxication at the time of his arrest. Now, the Supreme Court must reckon with its 2022 Bruen decision while considering the outcome of the current case.
According to oral arguments, Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor considered that Congress should determine which drugs are dangerous, not the Court. Justice Neil Gorsuch mentioned the Founding Fathers, discussing how normalized drinking was at the country’s inception, and questioning if it made them habitual drunkards.
“And if those Founding Fathers were not ‘habitual drunkards,’” Justice Gorsuch said, “then what do we know about Mr. Hemani? We know he uses marijuana … about every other day. [W]e don’t even know the quantity of how much he uses every other day. And the federal government has not been able to define what a user is.”
A decision is expected to be issued during this summer.