Supreme Court Unanimously Rules Federal Gun Ban on Drug Users Violates Second Amendment in Hemani Case

Justice Gorsuch wrote for a unanimous Court on June 18, holding 18 U.S.C. §922(g)(3) unconstitutional as applied to Ali Hemani, a Texas man found with a Glock 19 and marijuana during a 2022 FBI search 123. Gorsuch found the government's colonial habitual-drunkard analogues inadequate on two grounds: they targeted a more severely incapacitated class than the statute reaches, and they required individualized process before any rights were stripped 14. The ruling does not disturb the felon-in-possession ban, the bar on drug addicts, or prosecutions where the government demonstrates a defendant's drug use renders him individually dangerous, which Gorsuch wrote the decision leaves untouched 123. Thomas, Jackson and Sotomayor, and Alito and Kagan each wrote separately on distinct grounds 1.