By Staff Report
A federal judge has put a long-running lawsuit on hold that challenges whether medical-marijuana patients in Florida can be prohibited from owning or possessing firearms.
Chief U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor issued the stay Thursday, pausing the case until the U.S. Supreme Court rules in a similar case out of Texas, United States v. Hemani. The nation’s highest court announced Monday it would take up that case, which centers on whether the federal law barring drug users from having guns violates the Second Amendment.
Justice Department attorneys argued that the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision “will almost certainly have a significant impact” on Florida’s case, which was originally filed in 2022 by then–Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and a group of medical-marijuana patients.
The plaintiffs contend that federal restrictions unlawfully prevent Floridians who are registered medical-marijuana users — and compliant with state law — from possessing or purchasing firearms. Under federal law, marijuana remains a Schedule I controlled substance, making its users “unlawful” under gun ownership regulations.
The Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year revived the case after Winsor initially dismissed it in 2022. The appeals court found that the federal government had failed to show that disarming medical-marijuana users was “consistent with this nation’s history and tradition of firearm regulation.”
In contrast, the Texas case stems from a criminal prosecution involving Ali Danial Hemani, who was charged under the same federal statute after an FBI search uncovered a firearm and marijuana in his home. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Hemani, striking down the federal prohibition as unconstitutional in his case — prompting the Justice Department’s appeal to the Supreme Court.
It remains unclear when the Supreme Court will hear arguments or issue a ruling.
Ali Moreland 
AMBER PATINO 