People listen to a tour guide outside the U.S. Supreme Court, where judges are scheduled to deliver their opinions on pending cases in Washington, DC, on June 18, 2026.
Elizabeth Franz | Reuters
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of marijuana users, limiting the application of a federal law that prohibits drug users from owning guns, finding that certain charges under the measure violate the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms.”
In a 9-0 decision, the justices upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss illegal gun possession charges brought under the law against Ali Hemani, a dual U.S.-Pakistani citizen and Texas resident who told authorities he was a regular marijuana user.
President Donald Trump’s administration had defended the law in the lawsuit.
Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, who authored the decision, said the government “has failed in its recognized responsibility to show that Mr. Hemani’s prosecution is compliant with the Second Amendment.”
A 1968 federal law called the Gun Control Act makes it illegal for “unlawful users or addicts of controlled substances” to possess firearms.
The gun control led to Hunter Biden’s conviction in 2024, and his pardon by his father, then-President Joe Biden, later that year. Prosecutors had accused the president’s son of falsely claiming he had used drugs when purchasing a Colt Cobra handgun in 2018.
Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, arrives at a federal courthouse for his criminal firearms trial in Wilmington, Delaware, US, on June 7, 2024.
Hannah Baier | Reuters
Hemani was indicted in 2023 after an FBI search of the home he shared with his parents in Denton County led to investigators finding a Glock 9mm pistol, marijuana and cocaine. Hemani said he used marijuana almost every other day, but authorities did not charge him as being intoxicated at the time of the raid.
The Justice Department said in court documents that Hemani’s actions came to the FBI’s attention because of his travels to Iran and because his brother attended an Iranian university. However, Mr. Hemani’s indictment contained only a single charge under the Gun Control Act.
Illegal drugs are grouped into tiers known as “schedules” under a separate law called the U.S. Controlled Substances Act.
Marijuana was long listed as a Schedule I substance along with heroin, ecstasy, and peyote, suggesting it had a high potential for abuse and no medical value. But after President Trump signed an executive order on marijuana, the Justice Department eased regulations on some marijuana products in April and reclassified the drug as less dangerous.
Justice Department lawyers told the Supreme Court that Hemani’s marijuana should be treated as a Schedule I controlled substance, just as it was for the illegal gun possession charge. But they suggested courts could create carve-outs from gun regulations for cannabis products approved by the Food and Drug Administration or subject to state medical marijuana licenses.
Mr. Hemani asked that the charges be dismissed, saying they violate his Second Amendment rights. He also noted the strict test the Supreme Court set in its 2022 decision, which requires gun laws to be “consistent with historical traditions of firearm regulation” in order to comply with the Second Amendment.
In 2025, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the illegal gun possession charge, ruling that the firearms ban doesn’t apply to a person while in possession of a gun unless he or she was under the influence of drugs.
On appeal, the Trump administration’s Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to adopt a rule that would allow illegal gun possession charges against “regular users” of illegal drugs. The government said the regulations are historically similar to laws from the 1800s that allowed authorities to temporarily disarm “habitual drinkers.”
“I understand that drugs and guns can sometimes be a dangerous combination,” Gorsuch said in his ruling. “We also appreciate that the government’s efforts to map modern statutes addressing drug use to historic laws must be sensitive to the fact that many drugs that are well-known today were unknown in early America.”
Gorsuch said these alcohol regulations are different from modern federal gun regulations.
Hemani’s lawyers, backed by the ACLU, argued that regular marijuana users are not comparable to the “habitual drinkers” referred to in these laws.
In a country deeply divided over how to address persistent gun violence, including frequent mass shootings, the Supreme Court has often issued a wide range of views on Second Amendment protections, including in major decisions in 2008, 2010 and 2022.
The court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, heard arguments in another important Second Amendment case in January. The court’s conservative justices, like most businesses, expressed skepticism about Hawaii’s law that restricts the carrying of handguns on private property that is open to the public without the owner’s permission. A verdict is expected by the end of June.
