{"id":2575498,"date":"2026-03-03T08:30:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T13:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gun-restriction-at-the-heart-of-hunter-biden-indictment-takes-center-stage-at-scotus\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T08:34:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T13:34:20","slug":"gun-restriction-at-the-heart-of-hunter-biden-indictment-takes-center-stage-at-scotus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gun-restriction-at-the-heart-of-hunter-biden-indictment-takes-center-stage-at-scotus\/","title":{"rendered":"SCOTUS Weighs Gun Restriction Central To Hunter Biden Case"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgun-restriction-at-the-heart-of-hunter-biden-indictment-takes-center-stage-at-scotus%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2575498&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article reports that the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in U.S. v. Hemani, a gun-rights case challenging 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 922(g)(3), which prohibits firearm possession by \u201can unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance.\u201d The defendant, ali Danial Hemani, was charged under this provision after federal agents found a pistol, marijuana, and cocaine at his home following allegations of ties to a foreign terror group; Hemani reportedly admitted regular marijuana use. The central issue is whether the statute\u2019s \u201cunlawful user\u201d restriction can be applied in a way that aligns with the Second amendment, or whether it violates constitutional rights or due process.<\/p>\n<p>In arguing for the government, Principal Deputy Solicitor General Sarah Harris maintained that the Second Amendment does not prevent temporarily disarming habitual marijuana users while they continue to use the drug, framing the restriction as a targeted past analog that fits within long-standing prohibitions on dangerous individuals. She drew on \u201chabitual drunkard\u201d laws and other historical restrictions as analogies, while Justices pressed her to show a suitably close parallel to present dangers and to address homelessness and other contextual issues.<\/p>\n<p>The opposing view, represented by Hemani\u2019s attorney, Erin Murphy, contended that the statute\u2019s \u201cunlawful user\u201d prong cannot be fairly applied to Hemani or others because the law does not provide fair notice of who counts as an unlawful user, and it could be applied inconsistently with the second Amendment. The government\u2019s broad reading faced significant scrutiny from justices including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, who questioned whether Congress\u2019s judgments about drug scheduling and dangers should be overridden by a broad interpretation of disarming users.<\/p>\n<p>Justices sonia Sotomayor, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Ketanji Brown Jackson weighed in with questions about the scope of the statute, its application to federally illegal but state-legal drugs, and how to handle hypothetical scenarios (such as a spouse using a prescribed medication) that test the definition of \u201cdangerousness\u201d and the law\u2019s reach.<\/p>\n<p>A decision in Hemani is not expected until later in the Supreme Court\u2019s 2025\u20132026 term. The article also notes the broader political angle by mentioning that prosecutors have used similar laws in other cases, including one involving Hunter Biden, and it includes related links for further context.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The U.S. Supreme Court heard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/program\/public-affairs-event\/justices-hear-case-on-gun-ban-for-drug-users\/672912\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">oral arguments<\/a> in a pivotal gun rights case on Monday. And oddly enough, it indirectly relates to former First Son <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/hunter-biden\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hunter Biden<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>In <em>U.S. v. Hemani<\/em>, the justices considered the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/09\/30\/the-federalists-guide-to-the-2025-supreme-court-term\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">case<\/a> of Texas resident Ali Danial Hemani, who was charged under a provision (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/18\/922\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">18 U.S. Code &sect; 922(g)(3)<\/a>) of the 1968 Gun Control Act that prohibits a person who is &ldquo;an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance&rdquo; from possessing a firearm. The charge came after federal authorities searched Hemani&rsquo;s home on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/24\/24-1234\/362144\/20250602174403309_HemaniPetition.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">allegations<\/a> of ties to a foreign terror group and discovered a pistol, 60 grams of marijuana, and 4.7 grams of cocaine. Hemani <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/Top_News\/US\/2026\/03\/02\/supreme-hemani-gun-control-act-drug-use\/8101772467074\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reportedly<\/a> admitted to being a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/two-pennsylvania-state-representatives-to-introduce-a-bill-to-legalize-recreational-marijuana\/\" title=\"Two Pennsylvania ...makers plan to propose legislation to legalize recreational ...\">regular marijuana user<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The high court&rsquo;s weighing of the contested provision&rsquo;s legality is significant given that federal prosecutors also used it to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/d9\/2023-09\/23-cr-00061%20%28Indictment%29.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">indict<\/a> Hunter Biden several years ago. While the gun charge and other tax-related charges were largely seen as a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/12\/11\/lets-be-clear-this-is-about-joe-biden-not-hunter-biden\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">cover<\/a> for obfuscating Joe Biden&rsquo;s role in the Biden family business, Hunter &mdash; who <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/12\/14\/awkward-hunter-bidens-defense-invokes-gun-rights-ruling-19-times-after-joe-called-it-unconstitutional\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">argued<\/a> the law was unconstitutional but was ultimately <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/hunter-biden-found-guilty-all-counts-gun-trial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">convicted<\/a> &mdash; received a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/12\/03\/hunter-bidens-pardon-is-all-about-protecting-joe-biden-not-his-son\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pardon<\/a> from his father during the latter&rsquo;s final days in office.<\/p>\n<p><strong>[RELATED:[RELATED:<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/06\/06\/please-let-hunter-biden-help-overturn-our-unjust-and-unconstitutional-gun-laws\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Please Let Hunter Biden Help Overturn Our Unjust And Unconstitutional Gun Laws<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Arguing in the law&rsquo;s favor on behalf of the Trump administration, Principal Deputy Solicitor General Sarah Harris <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/oral_arguments\/argument_transcripts\/2025\/24-1234_6537.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">contended<\/a> that the Second Amendment &ldquo;does not prohibit the government from temporarily disarming habitual marijuana users while they persist in using frequently.&rdquo; &ldquo;That tailored restriction,&rdquo; she claimed, &ldquo;easily fits within the historical tradition of disarming categories of people who present a special danger of misuse.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;That is no license for Congress to deem anyone dangerous. The government must show a historical analog that is relevantly similar and why and how it restricts Second Amendment rights,&rdquo; Harris said. &ldquo;Here, that&rsquo;s habitual drunkard laws. Under historical vagrancy and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ted-cruz-to-ketanji-brown-jackson-sexual-predators-would-be-released-if-your-law-school-views-prevailed\/\" title=\"Ted Cruz to Ketanji Brown Jackson: Sexual Predators Would Be Released If Your ... School Views Prevailed\">civil commitment laws<\/a>, habitual drunkards were imprisoned or confined without <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >specific dangerousness findings based<\/a> on judgments that habitual drunkards, as a class, threaten public safety.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>After taking questions from Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor about the founding era vagrancy laws and the contested statute&rsquo;s applicability to homelessness, Harris was challenged by Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch about whether the habitual drunkard statutes she cited are &ldquo;sufficiently analogous.&rdquo; The Trump appointee noted how the &ldquo;habitual drunkard&rdquo; standard was very different from the founding era than it is today, and how several of America&rsquo;s Founding Fathers drank large quantities of alcohol daily but were not considered habitual drunkards in their time.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;John Adams took a tankard of hard cider with his breakfast every day. James Madison reportedly drank a pint of whiskey every day. Thomas Jefferson said he wasn&rsquo;t much a user of alcohol, he only had three or four glasses of wine a night. &hellip; Are they all habitual drunkards who would be properly disarmed for life under your theory?&rdquo; Gorsuch asked, to which Harris said, &ldquo;No.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Gorsuch went on to steer the discussion back to Hemani&rsquo;s case and his use of marijuana &mdash; which is federally illegal but is legal in some states &mdash; several times a week. He posed a hypothetical in which Hemani is a Colorado resident who was medically prescribed one cannabis gummy a day to help him sleep at night, and asked whether the federal government could potentially disarm him for life. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I think the answer&rsquo;s &lsquo;yes&rsquo; under the government&rsquo;s theory,&rdquo; Gorsuch said, to which Harris admitted it could.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Justice Gorsuch asks what it meant to be &#8220;Habitual Drunkard&#8221; in old days of America: &#8220;Eight shots of whiskey a day only made you an occasional drunkard&hellip;to be a habitual drunkard you had to do double that&hellip;James Madison reportedly drank a pint of whiskey every day&hellip;&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/shu4RXb3k0\">pic.twitter.com\/shu4RXb3k0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cspan\/status\/2028524782963064902?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 2, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Picking up where Gorsuch left off, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett pressed the administration on its expansive interpretation of the law. The Trump appointee posed a hypothetical about a spouse who takes her husband&rsquo;s prescribed Ambien &mdash; a controlled substance &mdash; and questioned whether that person would be considered dangerous and pursuable under the contested statute. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;[T]he example that I just gave you about the Ambien is important to me because it&rsquo;s not the drug itself in this circumstance that&rsquo;s causing the dangerousness. It couldn&rsquo;t be because, if my husband has a prescription and I don&rsquo;t, what is it about Ambien itself that would make one of us more likely to be dangerous? It&rsquo;s not. It&rsquo;s the lawfulness,&rdquo; Barrett said. &ldquo;And so too here with the marijuana, I just don&rsquo;t see anything in the scheme that actually reflects Congress&rsquo;s judgment that this makes someone more dangerous.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson also <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GunOwners\/status\/2028509049763791079?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">expressed skepticism<\/a> about the government&rsquo;s claims &mdash; specifically its definition of &ldquo;habitual user.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Hemani&rsquo;s attorney Erin Murphy argued that the &ldquo;&lsquo;unlawful user&rsquo; prong of 922(g)(3)&rdquo; cannot be constitutionally applied to her client or anyone else &ldquo;because the statute fails to provide fair notice of what makes someone an unlawful user of a controlled substance who can be stripped of their Second Amendment rights.&rdquo; But even if the statute &ldquo;could be applied to Mr. Hemani consistent with due process,&rdquo; she reasoned, &ldquo;it could not be applied to him consistent with the Second Amendment.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The government &ldquo;cannot support disarming someone based solely on the fact that [he] consumes a few times a week something that Congress has designated a controlled substance,&rdquo; Murphy said. <\/p>\n<p>The greatest pushback to Murphy&rsquo;s arguments came from Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito. <\/p>\n<p>The chief justice probed whether Murphy&rsquo;s argument would apply not solely to marijuana, but &ldquo;to any drug, whether it&rsquo;s PCP, methamphetamine, whatever.&rdquo; He also appeared to express concern that such a stance would override &ldquo;the judgment of Congress and the executive branch with respect to the listing of particular drugs.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It just seems to me that [your position] takes a fairly cavalier approach to the necessary consideration of expertise and the judgments we leave to Congress and the executive branch,&rdquo; Roberts said.<\/p>\n<p>Alito &mdash; a former federal prosecutor &mdash; was much more aggressive in his questioning. The Bush 43 appointee told Murphy that he was &ldquo;puzzled by most of your argument,&rdquo; and he probed the limits of her stance as it relates to Congress&rsquo;s ability to regulate gun ownership for &ldquo;dangerous&rdquo; drug users.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Suppose someone regularly takes a drug, and during the period when that person is taking the drug, that person is super dangerous. &hellip; The Second Amendment would not permit Congress to say that&rsquo;s too risky?&rdquo; Alito asked. <\/p>\n<p>A decision in the case is not expected until later in the Supreme Court&rsquo;s 2025-2026 term. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics and RealClearHealth. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SCOTUS weighs gun-rights case tied to Hunter Biden<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":2575499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Hunter-Biden.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[50385,32528,6994,32275],"class_list":["post-2575498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-gun-control-2","tag-hunter-biden","tag-scotus","tag-supreme-court"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Hunter-Biden.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2575498"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2575502,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575498\/revisions\/2575502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2575499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2575498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2575498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2575498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}