Supreme Court to decide if pot smokers can own guns

The nation’s highest court on Monday said it would hear the case of United States v. Hemani, a case challenging a federal law against drug users owning guns. The Trump administration appealed a lower court’s decision to block most of the law barring gun ownership by people who are addicted to or illegally use controlled substances.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in January sided with a Texas man who regularly used marijuana and had a gun in his home. Hemani was convicted in a lower court of a felony under the law, but the appeals court declared that conviction unconstitutional, according to court documents. At the court of appeals, federal prosecutors argued that the legal precedent used as justification for the lower court’s decision was also wrongly decided and didn’t greatly curtail Second Amendment rights.

The Supreme Court challenge could set a new, definitive standard for gun ownership among drug users. 

Dig deeper: Read Lauren Canterberry’s report on a court’s temporary block of a Texas law restricting college campus protests.