DENVER–Colorado Governor Jared Polis, who has signed numerous gun rights restrictions into law, is siding with Second Amendment advocates in a Supreme Court case to decide if the government can disarm individuals who actively use marijuana.
But in a dramatic elected Democrat plot twist, despite Polis’ sudden gun rights advocacy, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has taken the exact opposite position, arguing for denying a right to arms to marijuana users.
The case
Federal law makes it a crime for “an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance” to “possess, receive, transport, or ship a firearm, even while not intoxicated.”
Because marijuana is federally classified as a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act, the federal law still applies in states where use and possession of the drug are lawful, such as Colorado.
United States v. Hemani, a US Supreme Court case docketed in June 2025, will decide the constitutionality of the law.
Ali Daniel Hemani, a Texas resident, ran afoul of the law when the FBI executed a search warrant finding marijuana, cocaine, and a pistol in Hemani’s house.
Hemani appealed, claiming his Second Amendment right was violated, and the Fifth Circuit Court concluded that the law was, in fact, unconstitutional.
The Department of Justice asked the high court for review, arguing the law falls within the government’s narrow bounds to disarm a citizen because they are a danger to society.
An amicus brief on the case, co-written by Independence Institute,* a free market think tank in Denver, argues that the Court should hold the law unconstitutional: “To justify firearms prohibition for marijuana users when they are not intoxicated, the government must prove that the ban is consistent with our nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation,” the brief reads, in part. “That tradition supports restrictions on the use of firearms while intoxicated, but it does not support disarming individuals when they are sober merely because they sometimes use intoxicants.”
The plot twist
Governor Polis in turn took a rare stand for gun rights in a recent press release, calling for federal action to allow marijuana users the right to arms: “There is no reason that someone should be banned from exercising their Second Amendment right simply because they use marijuana, especially when that logic is not being applied in the same way to other substances such as alcohol,” Polis said.
However, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (who is also running for governor this year) takes a much more progressive position, having signed Colorado on to a brief in favor of disarmament: “922(g)(3) furthers the important public safety goal of protecting the public from the dangers associated with firearm use by a presumptively dangerous group of people: individuals who habitually use a ‘controlled substance,’” the brief reads.
Dave Kopel, director of the Second Amendment Project at Independence Institute and one of the authors of the pro-gun owner brief, points to established anti-civil liberty tendencies on the part of Weiser: “Jared Polis is sometimes a civil libertarian, whereas Phil Weiser is generally authoritarian,” Kopel told Complete Colorado.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral argument on March 2, 2026, and a decision is expected to be issued by June or July.
* Independence Institute is publisher of Complete Colorado
