The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in a case challenging the constitutionality of a federal law barring people from buying or possessing firearms.

About two months after agreeing to take the case, the justices on Friday set a March 2 date to hear opposing arguments from the Justice Department, which has consistently defended the gun ban for cannabis users, and Ali Danial Hemani’s attorneys after the ban was sued.

Attorneys general from 19 states and Washington DC recently filed briefs for the federal government in the case, USA v. to Hemanarguing that judges should retain the current statute known as 18 USC § 922(g)(3)..

That law has been challenged in many federal courts in recent years, but the Supreme Court has upheld it TabernacleA lower court ruled that a federal ban on gun ownership by people who use cannabis violates the Second Amendment to the US Constitution.

Many others short ones they were also presented last month for the file, which was certified in October. Gun control groups including Everytown for Gun Safety, Second Amendment Law Scholars, Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and Global Action on Gun Violence have told the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling in the case, for example. A coalition of history and law professors also submitted a brief.

Also last month, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and 21 other anti-marijuana groups filed a brief, asking the judges. upholding the constitutionality of the federal gun ban for people who use cannabis-they say it is linked to violence and psychosis.

US Attorney General D. John Sauer, for his part, told the Supreme Court that people who use illegal drugs are “at greater risk” than people who drink alcohol.

The scheduling of the arguments in the case comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to US Attorney General Pam Bondi, removing marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). It’s unclear how much the modest policy change would affect the number of hanging gun cases.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration was concerned about legal liability for people convicted of violating gun laws in federal cases by being a cannabis user in possession of a firearm. Documents recently obtained by Marijuana Moment show.

Former President Joe Biden’s previously unreleased 2024 Justice Department guidelines generally warned US attorneys to exercise discretion in prosecuting federal cannabis casesespecially for crimes that were eligible for pardons during his tenure. But one section seems particularly important as the Supreme Court takes up a case challenging the constitutionality of the current federal gun statute.

in relation to TabernacleIn a separate August filing of the case, the Department of Justice also emphasized that “it is the subject of a question presented. multi-sided and growing circuit conflict.” In seeking the judge’s certification, the attorney general also noted that the defendant is a joint American-Pakistani with ties to Iranian entities hostile to the United States, putting him on the FBI’s radar.

Now that the Supreme Court has agreed to take it TabernacleIf the justices declare 922(g)(3) constitutional, that ruling could mean a win for the government in the remaining cases. The High Court recently denied a petition for certification USA v. Cooperpending decisions US v. Daniels and USA v. Sam.

Court also recently He denied a request to certify in another gun and marijuana case, USA v. Baxter, but that wasn’t particularly surprising since both the DOJ and the defendants had advised against pursuing the matter further after a lower court reinstated his conviction for being an unlawful user of a controlled substance in possession of a firearm.

Meanwhile, in recent interviews with Marihuana Moment, several Republican senators shared their views federal ban on possession of firearms by marijuana users—Arguing that alcoholics can legally purchase and use firearms, the same standard should be applied to cannabis users.

Separately, US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit last year he sided with a federal district court that dismissed an indictment against Jared Michael Harrison, who was indicted in Oklahoma in 2022 after police found cannabis and a gun in his vehicle during a traffic stop.

Now the case has been taken to that lower court, which has determined that the current statute prohibiting “illegal” marijuana users from possessing firearms violates the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

The lower court relied heavily on its initial decision Interpretation of a judgment of the Supreme Court where courts generally created a higher standard for policies seeking to impose restrictions on gun rights.

In the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, judges recently ruled in favor of medical cannabis patients who wish to exercise their Second Amendment rights to own firearms.

as a A recent report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) outlined the current legal landscapeA growing number of federal courts are “finding constitutional problems in applying at least some portions” of the firearms ban.

In a recent ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated defendant’s conviction and remanded the case to the district courtnoting that a retrial before a jury may be necessary to determine whether cannabis made the defendant dangerous or posed a credible threat to others.

The The Third Circuit separately held in a published opinion that district courts must make “individualized judgments” to determine whether 922(g)(3) is constitutional. as applied to private defendants.

A federal court in October agreed to delay proceedings in a Florida-based case challenging the constitutionality of the ban on gun ownership by people who use medical marijuanaArguing the recent decision of the Supreme Court by the Department of Justice Tabernacle it guarantees a stay in the lower court.

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Last year, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled that the ban was unconstitutional as applied to the two defendantswriting that the government failed to establish a “broad” ban on gun ownership by marijuana users based on historical precedent.

A federal judge in El Paso ruled separately in 2024 that the government is up and running Banning guns from regular marijuana users is unconstitutional in the case of a defendant who previously pleaded guilty. The court allowed the man to withdraw his plea and ordered the charge against him to be dismissed.

The DOJ has asserted it in several federal cases in recent years statute prohibiting cannabis users from owning or possessing firearms it is constitutional because it is consistent with the history of disarming “dangerous” individuals.

In 2023, for example, the Justice Department told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that historical precedent “comfortably” supports the restriction. Gun-toting cannabis users pose a unique danger to society, the Biden administration says, in part because they are doing so. “unlikely” to store weapons properly.

Meanwhile, some states have passed their own laws that further restrict or try to protect gun rights as they relate to marijuana.

A Pennsylvania lawmaker recently introduced a proposed bill remove state barriers to medical marijuana patients carrying firearms.

Colorado activists also tried to place an initiative on the November ballot that would protect the Second Amendment rights of marijuana users in that state, but The campaign signature collection ultimately fell short.

As 2024 drew to a close, The ATF issued a warning to Kentucky residents that is, if they choose to participate the state’s medical marijuana program to be launched immediatelythey will be prohibited from purchasing or possessing firearms under federal law.

The official said that while people who already own firearms are “not expected” to become sick of the state’s legal cannabis, those who want to “follow federal law and not violate it” must “make the decision to get rid of those firearms.”

Since then, bipartisan lawmakers have been introduced Legislation that would ask Kentucky’s congressional representatives to change federal law to clarify that medical marijuana users can legally own firearms, although no action has since been taken on the bill.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) said in January that he supported the legislature’s effort to ask the state’s congressional delegation. Call for federal reforms to protect the Second Amendment rights of medical marijuana patientsbut the governor added that he would like to see even more significant changes at the federal level.