The Supreme Court has voted to take on a contentious Second Amendment case that could change the scope of gun rights in America.

The court will weigh the legality of a federal ban on gun ownership for people who habitually consume illicit drugs, NBC reports. It is the same law that was used to convict Hunter Biden before he was pardoned by his father, former president Joe Biden.

The Trump administration generally supports gun rights but is defending the restrictions in this case. The Justice Department argues the drug ban is narrowly tailored to a legitimate public interest in keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people.

Reasonable limits?

The Justice Department wants the Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court ruling in favor of Ali Danial Hemani, a Texas man who was caught with marijuana, cocaine, and a gun inside his house during an FBI search in 2022.

Hemani had been charged under a law that bars anyone "who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance” from owning a firearm.

Lower courts have split on how to interpret the statute since the Supreme Court's landmark Bruen ruling in 2022, which upended the legal landscape on guns by imposing a new history-based test.

The Fifth Circuit appeals court ruled that the government had to show Hemani was intoxicated while carrying, and prosecutors failed to prove this.

Dueling narratives

The Trump administration and Hemani have offered dueling interpretations of the drug law's scope and how it ought to be interpreted in relation to regulations in place at the time of America's founding.

Solicitor General John D. Sauer argued in his brief to the Supreme Court that banning drug addicts from gun ownership "stands solidly within our Nation’s history and tradition of regulation,” which includes "much harsher founding-era restrictions on habitual drunkards."

According to the Sauer, there are “narrow circumstances” where restrictions on the Second Amendment are permitted.

"Habitual illegal drug users with firearms present unique dangers to society - especially because they pose a grave risk of armed, hostile encounters with police officers while impaired," Sauer wrote.

"History and tradition"

According to lawyers for Hemani, the government cannot restrict drug addicts from owning guns in a broad sense.

The appeals court correctly found that “history and tradition showed laws banning carrying weapons while under the influence of alcohol, but none barred gun possession by regular drinkers,” Hemani's lawyers said.

A decision in the case is expected by next summer.

While the Supreme Court has been generally supportive of gun rights, the court took a different direction last year and upheld a ban on firearms for people with domestic violence restraining orders against them.