Politics

The Supreme Court Ruled 9-0 That Marijuana Users Have the Right to Own Guns

By Mike Harper · June 19, 2026

The Supreme Court has ruled unanimously on relatively few things in recent years. Thursday’s gun ruling was one of them.

In a 9-0 decision in United States v. Hemani, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal law banning gun ownership by “unlawful users” of controlled substances is unconstitutional as applied to regular marijuana users who are not shown to be dangerous. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion. All nine justices agreed on the outcome. Five filed separate concurrences spelling out different reasoning — a sign of how much the court’s various factions still disagree about the Second Amendment’s reach, even when they reach the same result.

The case was brought by Ali Danail Hemani, a Texas resident who acknowledged to FBI agents that he used marijuana several times a week while also owning a legally purchased firearm. He was charged with a federal felony under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3) — the law that bars “unlawful users” of any controlled substance from possessing guns. A lower court found the law unconstitutional as applied to his case. The Supreme Court agreed.

Gorsuch’s opinion rejected the government’s argument that the law could be justified by historical analogies to colonial-era statutes disarming “habitual drunkards.”

“We do not question that sometimes an individual’s unlawful use of marijuana may render him a danger to others. But that is not enough. The government must show that the individual poses a danger — not merely that he uses marijuana.”

The ruling does not eliminate the federal gun ban for drug users entirely. Prosecutors can still charge someone under the law if they can demonstrate that the specific individual’s drug use makes them dangerous. What the court removed is the government’s ability to apply the ban categorically — prosecuting anyone who uses marijuana and owns a gun, regardless of their actual circumstances.

The case carries a cultural marker that was not lost on the justices: the same law was used to convict Hunter Biden in 2024 before his father pardoned him. Gorsuch noted in his opinion that marijuana use has become widespread enough that treating it like harder drug use may no longer reflect the realities of American life — citing surveys suggesting more Americans now use marijuana than alcohol regularly.

For the estimated 50 million Americans who use marijuana and the millions more who own guns, the ruling clarifies that possessing both is not automatically a federal felony. The ACLU called it “a significant win for millions.”