Overview

• An Eleventh Circuit panel reversed a district court’s dismissal and remanded a case contesting the federal bar on gun possession by “unlawful drug users,” including state-authorized medical marijuana patients.
• Judge Elizabeth Branch, joined by Judges Gerald Tjoflat and Robert Luck, wrote that the plaintiffs plausibly alleged a Second Amendment violation at the pleading stage.
• The opinion said medical marijuana patients cannot be labeled dangerous solely for their medicinal use and found the government had not met its burden under the history-and-tradition test refined by Rahimi.
• The Justice Department had argued the restriction fits longstanding limits on firearms for people who may endanger others, citing analogues involving felons, alcoholics, and the mentally ill.
• Plaintiffs Vera Cooper and Nicole Hansell were denied gun purchases after disclosing medical marijuana use, while retired officer Neill Franklin owns a gun but has refrained from joining Florida’s medical program; the federal ban remains in effect as the case proceeds.