On June 18, 2026, as part of the final scheduled slate of opinions before its summer break, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a unanimous ruling on yet another Second Amendment case. It also served as a reminder that agreement on a verdict leaves plenty of room for the different reasons as to why a verdict was rendered.
In United States v. Hemani, the Court upheld a ruling against the Department of Justice (DOJ) by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that held the government could not constitutionally prosecute a Texas man who admitted using marijuana for possessing a firearm under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3). Despite cannabis still being a controlled substance under federal law, the opinion written by Justice Neil Gorsuch applied New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen (2022) to determine that the Second Amendment protects Ali Danial Hemani’s possession of firearms. Hemani was facing up to 10 years in a federal prison despite having no other charges besides unlawful possession of a firearm.
The battle over gun rights for cannabis users applied Bruen’s “historical tradition of firearm regulation” to determine whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3) was a constitution
al restriction on firearms. The government argued that founding-era laws regarding the possession of guns by “habitual drunkards” met the Bruen test, bringing about an unexpected examination of the drinking habits of early Americans. It also made for strange bedfellows, as groups that are often on opposite ends of the political spectrum came together over the melding of gun ownership rights and cannabis use in their amicus briefs, such as the Liberty Justice Center and the National Rifle Association (NRA). In the same vein, a concurrence shared by Justices Elena Kagan and Samuel Alito may have taken some by surprise.
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