The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday, October 20, 2025, to review a federal law that prohibits illegal drug users from owning firearms. The law, a key part of the landmark Gun Control Act of 1968, is one of the statutes under which former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was charged in 2023.
The justices took up the Justice Department’s appeal to defend the law, which was challenged by a dual American-Pakistani citizen in Texas, Ali Hemani. A lower court had ruled that the gun restriction largely violated the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms.”
The case stems from an illegal gun possession charge brought against Hemani, who was described as a regular marijuana user. Federal authorities found a pistol belonging to him, along with marijuana and cocaine, during an unrelated 2022 raid of his home in Denton County, Texas. Authorities did not allege Hemani was intoxicated at the time he was found with the firearm.
Hemani moved to dismiss the charge, citing the stringent test established by the Supreme Court in a 2022 decision, which requires that modern gun regulations must be “consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the charge against Hemani in January, ruling that “there is no historical justification for disarming a sober citizen not presently under an impairing influence.”
Zachary Newland, a lawyer for Hemani, expressed disappointment that the Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal but maintained hope that his client’s “important fundamental constitutional rights” would be vindicated in the end.
The statute at the center of the debate gained national attention in 2023 when Hunter Biden was charged with violating it. Prosecutors accused the former President’s son of lying about his narcotics use when purchasing a handgun in October 2018.
Hunter Biden was found guilty by a jury in June 2024, but his father, President Joe Biden, issued a presidential pardon in December 2024.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear the arguments and issue a ruling on the Hemani case by the end of June 2026.
