By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday announced it has granted review of a case challenging whether habitual users of illegal drugs can be legally barred from possessing firearms under the constitution.
The case is known as United States v. Hemani, and one prominent Second Amendment attorney declared in his podcast Monday that this may not work out well for gun rights.
The BBC is reporting that the Trump administration—the Department of Justice—actually requested Supreme Court review of the case after the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas ruled in favor of a man identified as Ali Hemani, who was prosecuted under the law “but argued it violated his constitutional right to possess a firearm.”
The BBC report also notes the irony involved here, because this is the same law under which Hunter Biden, son of former President Joe Biden, was successfully prosecuted. Hunter was pardoned by his father last year despite repeated promises there would be no such pardon.
Federal law has, for decades, prohibited firearms ownership and possession by users of illegal drugs, and while marijuana—which Hemani used—has been legalized in some states, it remains an illegal controlled substance under federal statute (18 U.S.C. § 922 (g)(3).
As noted by the BBC, Solicitor General John Sauer wrote in his certiorari petition to the high court, “Habitual illegal drug users with firearms present unique dangers to society – especially because they pose a grave risk of armed, hostile encounters with police officers while impaired.”
Attorney William Kirk, president of Washington Gun Law, poses this question: “Do you honestly think that the United States Supreme Court accepted this case so they could go ‘Ditto, yeah the Fifth Circuit got it right? Absolutely not.”
He also raised an alarm about the high court’s acceptance of this case, and one other out of Hawaii, when there are other pending cases regarding semi-auto rifle and magazine bans. The Supreme Court rarely accepts Second Amendment cases, and so far this term it has accepted two cases. He is worried the other cases, which could have much broader implications and impact, might not be accepted.
