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The Supreme Court affirmed a marijuana user’s right to bear arms on Thursday, holding that criminal charges against him for owning a gun while using cannabis violate the Second Amendment. The unanimous decision in United States v. Hemani rejected the federal government’s authority to disarm consumers of marijuana absent evidence that they regularly used the drug to the point of incapacity. In doing so, the justices frankly acknowledged the widespread legal and social acceptance of cannabis in America today—a remarkable turnabout for a court that has long treated all drug users as presumptively dangerous criminals.

On this week’s episode of Amicus, co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discussed Hemani’s selective libertarian sympathies and how the unanimous opinion papered over the court’s ongoing disagreements about how to read and apply the Second Amendment. A preview of their conversation, below, has been edited and condensed for clarity. For the remainder of their discussion of Hemani, listen to this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode.

Dahlia Lithwick: In a lot of ways, Justice Neil Gorsuch’s majority opinion becomes an ode to legal marijuana. And maybe we shouldn’t be surprised: He lived in Colorado when that state legalized recreational cannabis in 2012. He went to bat for gummy aficionados during oral argument. The upshot of his opinion is basically that marijuana’s kind of chill and fun, and the founders would have liked it?

Mark Joseph Stern: Yes, which tracks with Gorsuch’s comments during oral argument. He clearly does not see marijuana as an especially dangerous or harmful drug, especially as compared to alcohol. One of the points he makes over and over again throughout this opinion is that the founders themselves were heavy drinkers. He writes that John Adams had “a tankard of hard cider” with his “daily breakfast,” while James Madison “consumed a pint of whiskey daily” and George Washington “often drank three glasses of madeira in the evening.” Thomas Jefferson enjoyed “3 or 4 glasses” of wine with dinner. And just a few days before the Framers signed the Constitution, they got absolutely smashed.

Gorsuch’s point is that these guys got drunk a lot. The people who ratified the Second Amendment, who........

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