The Justice Department has informed a federal appeals court that it believes a separate court’s ruling in a marijuana and gun rights case was “incorrectly decided” as it seeks a favorable decision in a related lawsuit.
In a one-page brief filed on Friday, the federal government notified judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit that the separate U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently deemed the law barring cannabis consumers from buying or possessing firearms to be unconstitutional.
DOJ contests the decision in that case, which is also relevant to a lawsuit that the Eleventh Circuit is considering. That suit, originally filed by former Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (D), more narrowly concerns the rights of state-registered medical cannabis patients to own guns, but the basic structure of the case is the same.
With oral arguments scheduled for next month in the Florida case, the Justice Department said the separate ruling last week “departs from the numerous circuit and district court decisions upholding § 922(g)(3)’s constitutionality.”
“In deviating from those precedents, Daniels relied on the Fifth Circuit’s prior decision in United States v. Rahimi, a case in which the Supreme Court recently granted the
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