Supreme Court sides with marijuana user stripped of gun rights

People listen to a tour guide speak outside the U.S. Supreme Court, where justices are expected to issue opinions on pending cases, in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 18, 2026. Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a marijuana user on Thursday by limiting the application of a federal law that bars drug users from owning guns, finding that certain prosecutions under the measure intrude on the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms." The justices, in 9-0 ruling, upheld a lower court's decision to dismiss an illegal gun possession charge brought under the law at issue against Ali Hemani, an American-Pakistani dual citizen and resident of Texas who told authorities he was a regular marijuana user. President Donald Trump's administration had defended the law in the case. Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, who authored the ruling, said the government had not "carried its conceded burden of showing its prosecution of Mr. Hemani complies with the Second Amendment." A 1968 federal law called the Gun Control Act makes possession of a firearm illegal for anyone who "is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance." That gun restriction 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. Hunter Biden, son of U.S. …