Could something legal cause you to lose a constitutional right?

That’s what may be on the line after a U.S. Supreme Court announcement last week that it will consider whether the Second Amendment right to bear arms applies to those Americans who use drugs, including cannabis.

A federal prohibition on gun ownership by drug users has factored into numerous legal proceedings over the years. One recent high-profile case involving this prohibition saw Hunter Biden, son of former President Joe Biden, convicted for it, and later pardoned by his father. 

However, a recent lower court ruling on a separate case found the prohibition to be unconstitutional.

The Trump administration Department of Justice appealed, asking the Supreme Court to consider that lower court ruling, opening a path to overturn the decision and effectively reinstate the prohibition. Last Monday, the Supreme Court accepted the request.

The Supreme Court will be considering a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that threw out a felony charge based on the gun prohibition. The 5th Circuit used a 2022 Supreme Court ruling as the basis for its decision.

That 2022 Supreme Court ruling expanded Second Amendment protections by arguing that gun laws must be strongly rooted in America’s history, an argument that falls squarely in line with the overwhelmingly originalist views of the court’s majority.

“Our history and tradition may support some limits on an intoxicated person’s right to carry a weapon, but it does not justify disarming a sober citizen based exclusively on his past drug usage,” the 5th Circuit wrote in its 2023 decision, referencing the Supreme Court’s precedence from the year before.

The sober citizen in question was a Mississippi man named Patrick D. Daniels Jr. who was found with guns in his car during a traffic stop. Daniels admitted to being a cannabis user but was not cited for driving under the influence.

Past drug usage? Check. Sober? Check.

Mississippi is one of 40 states in which cannabis is legal for medical use, and in 24 of those it is also legal for recreational use, but the Second Amendment applies in every state.

Should the Supreme Court overturn this 5th Circuit ruling, gun rights could be taken away from tens of millions of people — a 2024 editorial in the American Journal of Public Health noted that 25% of the American population reported consuming cannabis at least once within the past year. A 2024 Pew Research Poll found that 32% of Americans say they personally own a gun.

To do so, the court would have to contradict its own language that was intended to expand the right to bear arms.