The Supreme Court said on Monday that it will hear arguments in a case about whether people who regularly smoke marijuana can legally own a gun.
The case, United States v. Hemani, stemmed from a Texas man who was charged with a felony because he acknowledged regularly using the drug and allegedly had a gun in his home.
The Trump administration urged the Supreme Court to take up the case after the Department of Justice appealed the ruling from a lower court. The court largely struck down a law that bans people who use illegal drugs from owning guns.
Ali Danial Hemani’s lawyers got his felony charge thrown out after a lower court found the ban is unconstitutional under the Supreme Court’s expanded view of gun rights, The Associated Press reported.
His lawyers argue the law puts many people at risk of a felony charge because many have used marijuana before. The lower court said the government must show that the gun owner was under the influence of the drug at the time of the arrest, something not done with Hemani when he was arrested.
The FBI found a handgun, marijuana and cocaine when they searched Hemani’s home after being suspicious of travel and communication allegedly linked to Iran. The gun and drug charge was the only one filed, the AP reported.
It’s the latest gun rights case to reach the Supreme Court after the 2022 landmark decision that ruled the Second Amendment gives people the right to carry guns for self-defense purposes and said any restrictions must be created with historical understanding. In 2024, the justices upheld a federal law that banned people who have domestic violence restraining orders from possessing a gun.
It’s also the court’s second gun-related case of this term. Earlier this month, the justices agreed to hear whether a Hawaii law that restricts where people with concealed carry permits can bring handguns also violates the Second Amendment.
The law is the same one that former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was convicted of last year. He was later pardoned by his father before he left office in January.
The justices will likely hear oral arguments in the case early next year and a decision will come before the end of the court’s term next June or early July.