This is the Kator Daily Podcast for Wednesday, August 16th, 2003.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals last week ruled against a federal law that prohibits so-called unlawful drug users from possessing

firearms.

It further raises concerns about this particular blanket prohibition on a large swath of Americans who currently are prohibited from taking advantage of an individual constitutional right.

Cato's Clark Neely discusses the case and the implications for the Second Amendment going forward.

For the purposes of Americans who would like to secure their Second Amendment rights,

what is an unlawful drug user?

Right, so federal law provides that any unlawful user of a controlled substance

may not own a firearm.

And the answer to the question is we really have no idea what that means.

Different courts have disagreed about whether the government has to show some persistent use over time or if the government can show that you used a drug once within the past couple of days is that sufficient.

So part of the reason why we're all over the map here is because up until fairly recently courts just

didn't take seriously the Second Amendment or people's right to own a gun and so

really wasn't important to or not particularly important to get all this stuff worked out with any precision but now of

course that the courts are in the business are meaningfully protecting the right to own guns

all of these questions become much more salient and it shines a light on what a

terrible job the judiciary has done interpreting these statutes. So the Supreme Court in a line of

cases has begun taking the Second Amendment more seriously

and the guarantees of the Second Amendment as an individual as an individual right more seriously.

And courts have, I think, and you tell me if I'm wrong,

have begun to take the Supreme Court seriously

...