The U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously in favor of a Texas man challenging how the federal government prosecutes a gun restriction involving drug users. The case centers on a federal law that prohibits people considered unlawful drug users from possessing firearms. According to reporting, the government sought a broad interpretation of the statute to support the man’s prosecution for firearm possession while he was an occasional, unlawful marijuana user.
The Court concludes that the government’s reading of the law is overly broad and conflicts with the Second Amendment. As summarized by CBS News, the decision rejects the government’s approach used to justify the man’s prosecution and narrows the way the federal prohibition applies in this context.
The ruling is presented as a significant limitation on the federal government’s ability to apply the drug-user-to-firearm prohibition to at least some categories of users, while leaving open questions about how the law applies in other factual or legal scenarios. The Court’s decision applies to the Texas man at the core of the case.
