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5th Circuit: Pot Use Not Historic Bar to Gun Ownership

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Ruling that 19th Century laws did not provide an analogous rule to the current federal ban on gun ownership by users of illegal drugs, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that a pot-smoking gun owner in Texas cannot be prosecuted based on her past drug habits, Reuters reports. Writing for a three-judge panel, Circuit Judge Kurt Engelhardt, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, wrote in overturning the conviction of Paola Connelly, "Marijuana user or not, Paola is a member of our political community and thus has a presumptive right to bear arms." Engelhardt said that while the government may be allowed to bar someone currently under the influence of drugs from having weapons, "there is no historical justification for disarming a sober citizen not presently under an impairing influence."


The ruling partly upheld a judge's decision to toss on Second Amendment grounds all of the charges Connelly faced. The panel revived a separate charge that she violated a ban on transferring firearms to someone using illegal drugs. Connelly was indicted after El Paso police officers responded in December 2021 to a report of shots fired at her home after a conflict arose between her husband and their neighbor. Upon arrival, officers found Connelly's husband standing at the neighbor's door firing a shotgun. Following his arrest, officers spoke with Connelly, who indicated she sometimes smoked marijuana. A search of the Connellys' home found drug paraphernalia and several guns, including some she owned. In upholding the dismissal of the gun possession charge against Connelly, Engelhardt cited a 2022 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority that established a new test for assessing whether modern firearm restrictions comply with the Second Amendment. The court's ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen requires gun regulations to be "consistent with this nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation." Many laws have been declared invalid following that decision.

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