GOA Sues Pennsylvania — Lifetime Carry Ban Over a 1994 Joint Cannot Survive Hemani

Gun Owners of America and the Gun Owners Foundation filed Philips v. Bivens in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, naming Acting State Police Commissioner George Bivens and Butler County Sheriff Mike Slupe.

The target is 18 Pa.C.S. § 6109(e)(1)(ii) — a lifetime bar on Licenses to Carry Firearms for anyone with any conviction under Pennsylvania's Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act. The statute does not distinguish violent felonies from minor misdemeanors. It does not ask whether the applicant remains a lawful gun owner under state and federal law today.

Philips was convicted in 1994 of possession of a small amount of marijuana — an ungraded misdemeanor capped at 30 days and a $500 fine. He has no other criminal record. When he applied for an LTCF in Butler County in 2024, the Pennsylvania Instant Check System flagged the 32-year-old case and the sheriff denied him.

The complaint leans hard on the Supreme Court's June 2026 decision in United States v. Hemani, which rejected the government's attempt to disarm casual marijuana users without proof of present dangerousness. GOA argues Pennsylvania's blanket lifetime denial is even weaker: Philips is not an active user, and the state still allows him to possess firearms in his home.

"Pennsylvania is treating a peaceable veteran like a second-class citizen," GOA's Erich Pratt said in the group's announcement. The suit seeks to block Pennsylvania from denying carry permits to people who remain eligible to own firearms but carry a stale, nonviolent drug record.

The case does not challenge serious drug felonies or federal prohibited-person categories. It targets the automatic lifetime strip of public carry for minor, decades-old offenses — exactly the kind of lifetime ban Easterbrook and the Hemani court said requires proof of present danger, not a bureaucratic checkbox.

Watch Philips v. Bivens on WTF News. If you live in a shall-issue state with a similar drug-conviction trap, your permit board may already be watching this docket.