Washington, DC: Solicitor General D. John Sauer is calling on the Supreme Court to uphold a longstanding federal ban prohibiting those with any history of cannabis use from legally owning or purchasing firearms.
In a brief filed last week with the Supreme Court, the Justice Department opines that categorically disarming cannabis consumers “comports with our historical tradition of disarming habitual drunkards.” The Department argues that the ban is justified “because of public-safety concerns arising from particularly dangerous behavior: mixing habitual illegal drug use or addiction with firearms.”
In March, the Supreme Court justice will hear arguments in United States v. Hemani. The Justice Department is appealing the case after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the federal government’s 2nd Amendment ban is unconstitutional when applied categorically to those with any history of cannabis use. Other lower courts have offered similar opinions.
In January, members of NORML’s Amicus Committee filed a friend of the court brief with the US Supreme Court, urging justices to repeal the federal ban.
“For centuries, Americans cultivated, consumed, and prescribed cannabis without any suggestion that doing so warranted loss of firearms rights. And state-legal medical cannabis users readily continue to do so today with the protection of Congress,” NORML’s brief explains. “The historical analogs the government identifies concern temporary restrictions on carrying or firing weapons while intoxicated or on persons adjudged dangerous — not blanket bans on all users of a disfavored substance.”
For decades, the federal government has asserted that the 1968 prohibition on firearm possession by “unlawful users” of federally controlled substances should be applied broadly, effectively criminalizing gun ownership based solely on past marijuana use — even absent intoxication or dangerous conduct.
Earlier this year, however, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) published a proposed rule in the Federal Register revising its interpretation of “unlawful user.” Under the proposed rule, federal prosecutors would be required to show evidence of “regular” or “compulsive” drug use over an extended period before restricting an individual’s Second Amendment rights.
A copy of this and other related NORML briefs can be found in NORML’s Legal Brief Bank.