WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court is set on Monday to hear a bid by President Donald Trump's administration to defend a law barring users of illegal drugs from owning guns in another test of the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms."
The Justice Department has appealed a lower court's decision to dismiss on Second Amendment grounds an illegal gun possession charge against Ali Hemani, an American-Pakistani dual citizen and resident of Texas who told authorities he was a regular marijuana user.
The gun restriction at issue led to a 2024 conviction of Hunter Biden, who later that year received a pardon from his father, then-President Joe Biden. Prosecutors had accused the president's son of lying about his use of narcotics in 2018 when he purchased a Colt Cobra handgun.
Hemani was charged in 2023 following an FBI raid of the home he shared with his parents in Denton County in which agents found a Glock 9mm pistol, marijuana and cocaine. Hemani said he used marijuana about every other day, though authorities did not accuse him of being intoxicated at the time of the search.
The Justice Department said in court papers that Hemani's actions had drawn FBI attention, citing his travel to Iran and his brother's attendance at an Iranian university. But Hemani's indictment contained only the single charge, under a 1968 federal law called the Gun Control Act that makes possession of a firearm illegal for anyone who "is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance."
Illegal drugs are grouped by tiers, known as "schedules," under another law called the U.S. Controlled Substances Act. Marijuana is listed as a Schedule I substance alongside heroin, ecstasy and peyote, implying it has high potential for abuse and no medical value, though Trump signed an executive order in December instructing his attorney general to quickly move ahead with reclassifying marijuana.
Hemani moved to dismiss his charge, arguing it violated his Second Amendment rights. He also cited the stringent test the Supreme Court set in a 2022 decision requiring that gun laws be "consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation" in order to comport with the Second Amendment.
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in January dismissed the illegal gun possession charge, ruling that "there is no historical justification for disarming a sober citizen not presently under an impairing influence."
Trump's administration appealed to the Supreme Court, urging the justices to adopt a rule that would allow illegal gun possession charges to be brought against "habitual users" of unlawful drugs. The administration said the restriction was historically similar to laws from the 1800s allowing authorities to temporarily disarm "habitual drunkards."
Lawyers for Hemani, who is backed by the ACLU, in court papers argued that regular marijuana users were not akin to the "habitual drunkards" of such laws. They also argued that the law's undefined reference to an "unlawful user" is unconstitutionally vague, with lower courts left "struggling to determine how frequent, prolonged, and substantial use must be."
In a nation deeply divided over how to address persistent firearms violence including frequent mass shootings, the Supreme Court often has taken an expansive view of Second Amendment protections including in major rulings in 2008, 2010 and 2022.
The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, in January heard arguments in another important Second Amendment case. The court's conservative justices signaled skepticism toward a Hawaii law that restricts the carrying of handguns on private property open to the public, like most businesses, without the owner's permission.