Professor Joel Johnson, "An Off-Ramp for the Court's Next Big Gun Case" -- SCOTUSblog

Professor Joel S. Johnson's opinion article, "An Off-Ramp for the Court's Next Big Gun Case," is published on SCOTUSblog. The article examines the pending Supreme Court case United States v. Hemani.

From "An Off-Ramp for the Court's Next Big Gun Case"

Last year, federal prosecutors obtained a conviction against Hunter Biden under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3), the federal statute that makes it a felony for any “unlawful user” of a controlled substance to possess a firearm. The government has also invoked the same statute against numerous individuals who smoked marijuana at some point before buying a gun, even in states where marijuana is legal. Under a longstanding regulation interpreting the statute, tens of millions of Americans could fall within its reach.

Later this term, in United States v. Hemani, the Supreme Court will address unlawful-user prosecutions under Section 922(g)(3). The case has been billed as the court’s next major Second Amendment battle. But it need not be. The court can and should avoid that constitutional thicket by resolving the case on a statutory ground. That outcome might be less dramatic, but it could have broader practical significance for how courts deal with open-ended language in a wide array of criminal statutes.

The complete article may be found at SCOTUSblog