Judge Pauses Florida Medical Marijuana Gun Rights Case as Supreme Court Takes Up Similar Challenge

Chief U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor issued the stay yesterday, halting the Florida case until the Supreme Court rules in United States v. Hemani, a Texas case that will test whether a law prohibiting “unlawful users” of controlled substances from possessing guns violates the Second Amendment. In their motion, Department of Justice attorneys argued that the Supreme Court’s decision in Hemani will “almost certainly have a significant impact” on the Florida case. “The court should stay this case because the Supreme Court is currently hearing a case concerning the constitutionality of the same statutory provision at issue in this case,” they wrote.

The Florida lawsuit, filed in 2022 by then-Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and several medical marijuana patients, challenges the federal prohibition that bars state-legal marijuana users from buying or owning firearms. While marijuana remains federally illegal, Florida’s 2016 constitutional amendment allows hundreds of thousands of residents to purchase and use medical marijuana. Plaintiffs argue the restriction violates the Second Amendment by preventing otherwise law-abiding patients from exercising their gun rights.

Although Winsor dismissed the case in late 2022, a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling earlier this year, finding the government had not shown that disarming medical marijuana patients was consistent with the nation’s history of firearm regulation. That decision sent the case back to Winsor for further review, which is now delayed until the Supreme Court issues a ruling.

The Hemani case does not directly involve medical marijuana. Instead, it stems from the discovery of marijuana and a firearm during an FBI raid on Ali Danial Hemani’s home. Hemani argued the federal prohibition was unconstitutional as applied to him, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. The Justice Department then asked the Supreme Court to take up the issue, and the justices announced this week they will hear the case.

It remains unclear when the Supreme Court will deliver its ruling, but the outcome is expected to shape not only the Florida lawsuit but the broader debate over gun rights for marijuana users nationwide.