United States v. Hemani · ¶34

Given all this, it seems the government's historical laws targeted habitual drunkards not merely because they regularly used intoxicants, or even sometimes used them to excess. Instead, those laws focused on habitual drunkards because their drinking rendered them practically incapacitated and incapable of managing their affairs. And that hardly compares to whom § 922(g)(3)'s unlawful user provision targets on the government's account. To be sure, the government construes the term “unlawful user” to embrace only “habitual or regular” users, not those who use drugs irregularly. Brief for United States 23–25. But even on that understanding, § 922(g)(3) automatically disarms anyone who regularly uses any amount of any controlled substance for anything other than its “prescribed purpose.” Tr. of Oral Arg. 57. The law, the government insists, does not require it to show that a particular…

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