Justices to Hit the Nail on Gun Toting Potheads

Letter to Romans: Should gun toting potheads have same 2d Amendment right to bear arms as a wino? What about regular consumers of cocaine? Federal law says, “NO.” On Monday, the US Sup Ct was to hear arguments challenging the law’s constitutionality.

The case is focused on federal law-making firearm possession illegal for an “unlawful user” of ANY controlled substance. As the WSJ reported, “Ali Hermani was charged with that crime” and his lawyers are asking the Justices to consider their argument that “a new legal test for the Second Amendment has rendered this law unconstitutional.” One might recall the Court’s landmark 2022 opinion in Bruen requiring the government to prove today’s gun laws are “consistent with this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” Whatever that was supposed to have meant. Thanks to Mr. Hermani’s suit that made it to the High Court, the Justices will have a chance to more clearly explain their earlier ruling.

As the WSJ article notes, since Bruen lawyers & judges have hit the books to see how the Founding era handled arms & whiskey.” But what’s been causing confusion is that the Bruen test, “requires only a ‘representative historical analogue, not a historical twin.’” Clear as a Jack Daniels? In this case, it happens that Mr. Hermani was a sometimes pot user while the feds allege he admits to taking cocaine & is a drug dealer. A police search of his home had also found .95 grams of cocaine. As the WSJ says, the Founding Fathers certainly barred intoxicated folks from carrying guns, but “what about a [modern] drug user who isn’t high at the moment” or is not a proven “abuser of a controlled substance”? The feds note the law doesn’t care & argue it shouldn’t. To be sure, the Founders had no way of knowing about the effects of pot let alone gummy bears or LSD, so “the historical precedents on disarmament aren’t going to be exact.” So, today’s arresting cops are supposed to make the call? Put another way, “How close is good enough for horseshoes, hand grenades & constitutional law under Bruen? Over to you Justices.”

Davd Soul