Jurisprudence
June 18, 20264:50 PM
Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Mario Tama/Getty Images and Andrew Youngberg/Getty Images Plus.
The Supreme Court affirmed a marijuana user’s right to bear arms on Thursday, holding that criminal charges against him for owning a gun while using cannabis violate the Second Amendment. The unanimous decision in United States v. Hemani rejected the federal government’s authority to disarm consumers of marijuana absent evidence that they regularly used the drug to the point of incapacity. In doing so, the justices frankly acknowledged the widespread legal and social acceptance of cannabis in America today—a remarkable turnabout for a court that has long treated all drug users as presumptively dangerous criminals.
On this week’s episode of Amicus, co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discussed Hemani’s selective libertarian sympathies and how the unanimous opinion papered over the court’s ongoing disagreements about how to read and apply the Second Amendment. A preview of their conversation, below, has been edited and condensed for clarity. For the remainder of their discussion of Hemani, listen to this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode.
