On October 20, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case addressing the use of controlled substances (such as marijuana) under the Second Amendment, an issue that has been working its way through the lower courts for years, resulting in circuit splits.
The Supreme Court granted cert to United States v. Hemani, which challenges the constitutionality of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3), the federal law prohibiting firearm possession by unlawful users of controlled substances (such as marijuana), under the Second Amendment.
Complicating this case is the fact that the defendant is a dual citizen of the United States and Pakistan, who the FBI believed “was poised to commit fraud at the direction of suspected affiliates of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated foreign terrorist organization,” according to the petition for a writ of certiorari.
On January 31, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an opinion affirming the district court’s dismissal of the charges against Ali Danial Hemani, a regular marijuana user, on Second Amendment grounds.
That decision created a circuit split with other decisions that likely led to the court agreeing to hear this case. In August 2024, the Fifth Circuit dismissed charges for non-violent marijuana users.
In July of 2025, the Third Circuit upheld the federal ban on marijuana for gun owners, but acknowledged that the debate is far from over, with room needed for “individualized judgments.” And in September of 2025, the Ninth Circuit upheld possession of firearms by those who are “presently intoxicated.”
Current federal law not only prohibits unlawful users of controlled substances (e.g., marijuana) from possessing firearms or ammunition, but requires buyers to certify via ATF Form 4473 that they are not such users under penalty of perjury during purchases.
In recent years, recreational use of marijuana has become extremely popular, with many likening it to the use of alcohol. The federal government under the Biden-Harris Administration had begun taking moves to reclassify marijuana as a controlled substance, but never gave any indication of how this would apply to lawful gun owners.
The Pam Bondi Justice Department is taking the position of defending the current prohibition in the case being heard by the Supreme Court. Second Amendment lawyer, Kostas Moros, opined on X, “A bit of a frustrating grant, because the facts are terrible. Still, SCOTUS taking TWO 2A cases in a term is a big deal.”
