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1 1 (July 7, 2026)

handle is hein.crs/goveusp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Supreme Court Rules Federal Gun Ban Unconstitutional as Applied to Marijuana User July 7, 2026 Federal law prohibits nine categories of individuals from possessing firearms or ammunition. One such prohibition, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3), forbids any person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance from such possession. In United States v. Hemani, the Supreme Court established Second Amendment limits on the scope of § 922(g)(3). In the words of the Court, the federal government had argued that § 922(g)(3) automatically disarms anyone who regularly uses any amount of any controlled substance for anything other than its 'prescribed purpose,' regardless of individualized circumstances, including what controlled substance an individual uses, in what amounts he does so, or whether his drug use has ever made him a danger to himself or others. In Hemani, the Court determined that the government presented insufficient historical support for this ambitious and expansive interpretation of § 922(g)(3), and, in doing so, the Court ruled that the prosecution of the defendant based solely on his use of marijuana a few times a week-without proof of relevant individual circumstances-violated the Second Amendment. This Sidebar provides an overview of the Hemani case. It begins with a brief sketch of modem Supreme Court cases on the Second Amendment and then discusses the majority and three concurring opinions produced in Hemani. The Sidebar closes with considerations for Congress. Modern Second Amendment Jurisprudence The Second Amendment, ratified in 1791, provides, A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. Over two hundred years later, the Court engaged in its first thorough examination of the meaning of the Second Amendment. An Individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms In 2008, in District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess an operable firearm for certain purposes, particularly self-defense in the Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB11450 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress