The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a significant ruling on June 18 that strengthens Second Amendment protections, deciding that a Texas man’s regular marijuana use alone cannot be used to automatically strip him of his right to possess a firearm.
In a unanimous opinion, the Court narrowed the reach of a federal gun restriction tied to drug use, signaling once again that firearm regulations must align closely with the nation’s historical traditions of gun control rather than modern administrative expansion.
At the center of the dispute was a long-standing provision of the Gun Control Act of 1968, which makes it a felony for anyone classified as an “unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance” to possess a firearm. Prosecutors had relied on that language to charge individuals even when their alleged drug use was not tied to any specific act of violence or impairment at the time of gun possession.
The Justice Department defended the statute, arguing that it remains constitutional because it only temporarily restricts gun rights and no longer applies once a person stops using illegal drugs. The argument came as federal policy continues to evolve around marijuana, with cannabis now legal in various forms across a majority of states, even though it remains illegal under federal law. The broader political backdrop includes shifting classifications of marijuana and ongoing debate about whether federal statutes should reflect state-level legalization trends.
Writing for the Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch emphasized that the decision was intentionally limited in scope. He made clear that the ruling does not address whether the government can disarm convicted felons, restrict firearms for individuals actively intoxicated, or determine that a specific person’s drug use automatically makes them too dangerous to own a weapon.
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