Published July 6, 2026
A Unanimous Court Draws a Line the Drug War Crossed Decades Ago
Every so often the Supreme Court hands down a decision that all nine justices — from Clarence Thomas to Ketanji Brown Jackson — agree on. It just happened, and the subject was marijuana.
In United States v. Hemani, decided June 18, the Court ruled unanimously that the federal government cannot strip someone of their Second Amendment rights simply because they use cannabis. The decision limits a decades-old federal law that made gun ownership a felony for any “unlawful user” of a controlled substance — a law that, on paper, turned tens of millions of Americans in legal cannabis states into potential federal criminals.
And according to new polling, most Americans across party lines agree with the outcome.
The Case: A Gun in a Drawer and a Few Joints a Week
The story starts with Ali Danial Hemani, a Texas man the FBI investigated in 2022. During a search of his family home, agents found a 9mm handgun he had bought legally and kept for self-defense. Hemani cooperated, and told investigators he used marijuana a few times a week.
That admission became the entire case. Federal prosecutors didn’t charge him with a drug crime. They charged him under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3) — the statute barring drug users from possessing firearms — a felony carrying up to 15 years in prison and a lifetime gun ban. If that law sounds familiar, it should: it’s the same one Hunter Biden was convicted under in 2024.
The government’s position was sweeping. It didn’t matter how much cannabis Hemani used, whether he was ever impaired around the gun, or whether he posed any danger to anyone. Use alone, prosecutors argued, was enough.
The Fifth Circuit threw the indictment out. The Supreme Court took the case — and affirmed, 9 to 0.
What the Court Actually Said
Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the Court, acknowledged that drug use can sometimes make a person dangerous with a firearm. But he rejected the idea that use alone — with no evidence of impairment, recklessness, or threat — can justify prison time and a lifetime loss of a constitutional right.
The government leaned on founding-era laws punishing “habitual drunkards” as its historical justification. The Court didn’t buy the analogy, noting the government’s logic would have disarmed much of the founding generation — and tens of millions of Americans today who have a drink a few nights a week.
The case produced unusual alliances. Gun rights organizations and the ACLU — which represented Hemani — ended up on the same side. ACLU legal director Cecillia Wang said the ruling protects millions of Americans from arbitrary penalties, given that nearly half the country reports having used marijuana at some point.
The polling since the decision backs that up: surveys show majority support for the ruling among Democrats, Republicans, and independents alike. In an era when the Court’s decisions routinely split the public down the middle, this one didn’t.
What It Means — and What It Doesn’t
Here’s where cannabis consumers need to read the fine print, because the headlines oversimplified this one.
What changed: The federal government can no longer prosecute someone under § 922(g)(3) based on drug use alone. Going forward, prosecutors need evidence that a person’s drug use actually makes them a danger — not just a dispensary receipt or an admission of weekend use.
What didn’t change: The statute itself is still on the books. The ruling was “as applied” to Hemani’s circumstances — a casual user, no impairment, gun kept at home. Someone who handles a firearm while high, or whose use is tied to dangerous conduct, can still face federal charges.
State law didn’t move an inch. Your state’s rules on cannabis, carry permits, and firearm eligibility are their own universe, and several states have restrictions the ruling doesn’t touch. A permit that’s fine in your home state can still create problems across a state line.
The federal purchase form is still a minefield. ATF Form 4473 still asks buyers whether they’re unlawful users of controlled substances, and lying on it remains a separate federal crime. Until the ATF updates its forms and guidance — a process already in motion following medical marijuana’s move to Schedule III in April — buying a new gun as a cannabis user remains legally murky.
The Bigger Picture: The Wall Between Cannabis and Civil Rights Is Cracking
Step back and the timing is striking. Within a single three-month window in 2026, medical marijuana moved to Schedule III, the DEA opened hearings on rescheduling cannabis entirely, and the Supreme Court unanimously declared that cannabis use alone can’t cost you a constitutional right.
Each development stands on its own. Together, they describe a federal government — across all three branches — slowly conceding what the states decided years ago: that tens of millions of ordinary Americans use cannabis, and treating all of them as presumptively dangerous criminals no longer holds up in court, in Congress, or with the public.
For decades, cannabis use has carried collateral consequences far beyond any drug charge — lost gun rights, immigration trouble, employment bans, custody complications. Hemani is the first time the nation’s highest court has knocked one of those consequences down. It probably won’t be the last. Lower courts are already weighing challenges to other cannabis-linked restrictions, and every one of them will now be argued in the shadow of a 9–0 precedent.
The drug war built its walls one assumption at a time. This ruling removed a brick — unanimously.
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Sources:
Supreme Court – United States vs. Hemani
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-1234_g2bh.pdf