SCOTUS to hash out how the founders would handle gun-wielding drug users [View all]
Source: Courthouse News Service
February 27, 2026
WASHINGTON (CN) Federal gun regulations are on the chopping block at the Supreme Court next week as the justices consider whether the founders would have disarmed habitual drunkards.
The Trump administration says they would have, submitting its historical analysis in favor of upholding modern regulations prohibiting drug users from owning firearms.
Early American legislatures recognized that habitual drunkards present heightened dangers of crime and violence, U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer wrote. They classified drunkards as criminal vagrants subject to confinement in jail or workhouses, committed drunkards to lunatic asylums, and subjected drunkards to surety laws backed by threat of jail burdens even more severe than those imposed by Section 922(g)(3).
The statute criminalizes gun possession for an unlawful user of any controlled substance. Swapping drunkards for drug users, the Trump administration says the law should be upheld, noting that federal and state laws have restricted illegal drug users rights for as long as that social evil has plagued America.
Read more: https://courthousenews.com/scotus-to-hash-out-how-the-founders-would-handle-gun-wielding-drug-users/