A Pennsylvania man convicted of lying about his marijuana use on a federal firearms form is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up his case, arguing that the government’s ban on gun ownership by cannabis consumers violates the Constitution.
Attorneys for Erik Harris filed a petition late last month urging the justices to review the law known as 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3), which bars “unlawful users” of controlled substances from owning or possessing firearms. The petition says the government never claimed Harris was intoxicated when he bought or carried guns and that the restriction is “based on loose predictive judgments” about marijuana users being dangerous.
Harris’s appeal follows a decision by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld his conviction despite his argument that the statute infringes on his Second Amendment rights. “Taken to its logical conclusion,” his petition warns, “the majority’s view would sanction a law disarming the millions of ordinary Americans who regularly drink wine with dinner or enjoy a beer after work.”
The filing comes as the Supreme Court prepares to discuss multiple pending cases on gun rights for marijuana consumers during a closed-door conference this week. The Justice Department, meanwhile, has asked the Court to review a separate case involving a defendant who used both marijuana and cocaine—one the government considers more favorable to its argument that drug users should be barred from firearm ownership.
Harris’s lawyers say their case presents a cleaner example, focusing solely on recreational cannabis use unconnected to other crimes. They’re asking the justices to determine not only whether the statute is constitutional, but also whether it’s too vague to enforce fairly.
Lower courts across the country have reached conflicting conclusions. The Tenth Circuit recently ruled that the government must prove marijuana users “pose a risk of future danger” to justify disarming them, while the Eleventh Circuit sided with medical marijuana patients seeking to keep their guns.
With roughly three-quarters of Americans now living in states where cannabis is legal in some form, the outcome could carry sweeping implications for how the federal government applies its gun laws in a rapidly changing legal landscape.
Read the whole article from MarijuanaMoment here.
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