An All-Ideologies Buffet
A Supreme Court decision handed down Thursday had a little something for everyone, culminating in a rare 9-0 decision (with many a concurrence).
United States v. Hemani stems from the horrifying experience of Ali Hemani, a dual U.S.-Pakastani citizen in Texas. Federal agents raided his family home in 2022, suspecting them of “terrorism-related activities.” While the search proved fruitless on that front, Hemani, in an attempt to cooperate fully, turned over a gun and told investigators that he used cannabis a few times a week.
Jump cut to six months later, and the feds are prosecuting Hemani under a statute that forbids an “unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance” from possessing a firearm.
You’ve got infringement on gun rights and the over-prosecuting of a brown guy for casual weed use — it’s an all-ideologies buffet.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority, saying that the historical analogue the government used to justify its prosecution — the delightfully termed “habitual drunkard” laws, which generally allow the government more control over people who are often incapacitated — was too dissimilar to Hemani’s situation.
“The government construes §922(g)(3) to automatically ban an individual from possessing a gun from the moment he becomes an unlawful user of any controlled substance and remains in effect until he ceases being one, regardless of what controlled substance an individual uses, in what amounts, whether his drug use has ever made him a danger to himself or others, why he keeps a gun, or how safely he does so,” Gorsuch wrote.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, concurred, but added that the Bruen test that requires gun control statues to have historical analogues to be legitimate is still stupid.
“To pass a new firearm regulation, legislatures and their lawyers are, as a practical matter, forced to trawl through inconclusive and incomplete historical records in search of evidence they can only hope will satisfy this Court,” she wrote.
Justice Clarence Thomas, in classic fashion, chimed in to say that the law the government used to prosecute Hemani is unconstitutional altogether. That take situates him to the right of the Gorsuch majority, which hastened to say that this ruling does not touch on efforts to ban addicts from owning guns or even prohibit prosecution under this law when the gun owner’s drug use can be proven to make him more dangerous.
And Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justice Elena Kagan (!), joined in the part of the decision that found the “habitual drunkard” comparison clearly wrong.
— Kate Riga
Tennessee Hearing Shows Futility of Fighting Red State Gerrymanders
A three-judge panel in Nashville on Thursday heard a challenge to the 9-0 Republican map Tennessee legislators rammed through immediately after the Callais decision, which essentially killed the Voting Rights Act.
The challengers’ Sisyphean task was immediately apparent as some of the judges — two Trump appointees and one Obama one — questioned how they could know that the legislators were motivated by racial intent versus partisan intent, when the two are inextricably intertwined. That, of course, was the whole point of Callais.
— Kate Riga
Trump Mocks Billionaires for Kissing His A**
New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan have a new book coming out that describes several instances during which President Trump made fun of billionaires Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Jeff Bezos of Amazon when they tried to curry favor with him after he won the 2024 election. Wired has the details:
Weeks after they met with Trump, he was still regaling associates with stories of how Zuckerberg and Bezos were “kissing my ass,” according to the book. “You would not believe the texts I got from these tech guys. I’ve got to show you,” Trump is quoted as telling some guests.
— Nicole LaFond
In Case You Missed It
New piece out this morning from TPM’s Josh Kovensky on the Trump admin’s efforts to denaturalize people with U.S. citizenship: DOJ Invokes McCarthy-Era Law to Strip Somalia-born Minnesotan of Citizenship
Emine Yücel on Republicans breaking with Trump over the Iran agreement: Congress Receives Iran Deal and Senate Republicans Immediately Criticize It
Morning Memo: Trump’s Iran ‘Deal’ Doesn’t Measure Up To Obama’s and He Knows It
In case you did not catch last night’s edition of Where Things Stand, I’ve gotchu: Georgia Republicans See Writing on the Wall
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
Trump’s Pick for Georgia Governor Loses
What We Are Reading
Proposed California Billionaire Tax Clears Key Hurdle on Way to Ballot
‘Everyone just needs to copy what I say’: Trump vented anger with Vance over Iran messaging
Scores Fall Ill at Air Force Base After Hegseth Makes Flu Vaccine Optional
And he loved it.
This proves that none of these scumbags has any character. Greed is one of their major character flaws.
ETA. Sorry. They have many but greed is on top.
Loved it, and at the same time knew it was all self-interested BS. It’s why he’s so obsessed with grand architectural projects. Once he’s gone no one will mourn him, but if he can throw up some enormous marble heaps he can impose himself on future generations.
Does this mean the GQP majority in the Senate is finally willing to stand up to Der Pumpkinführer? I remain pessimistic.
He’s done such a great job with the reflecting pool - The Arch will blow down in the next tropical storm.