694
Opinion of the Court
dated the two cases, reheard them en banc, and, relying on our recent decision in Grady v. Corbin, 495 U. S. 508 (1990), ruled that both subsequent prosecutions were barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause. 598 A. 2d, at 725. In its petition for certiorari, the Government presented the sole question "[w]hether the Double Jeopardy Clause bars prosecution of a defendant on substantive criminal charges based upon the same conduct for which he previously has been held in criminal contempt of court." Pet. for Cert. I. We granted certiorari, 503 U. S. 1004 (1992).
II
To place these cases in context, one must understand that they are the consequence of a historically anomalous use of the contempt power. In both Dixon and Foster, a court issued an order directing a particular individual not to commit criminal offenses. (In Dixon's case, the court incorporated the entire criminal code; in Foster's case, the criminal offense of simple assault.) That could not have occurred at common law, or in the 19th-century American judicial system.
At common law, the criminal contempt power was confined to sanctions for conduct that interfered with the orderly administration of judicial proceedings. 4 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *280-*285. That limitation was closely followed in American courts. See United States v. Hudson, 7 Cranch 32, 34 (1812); R. Goldfarb, The Contempt Power 12-20 (1963). Federal courts had power to "inforce the observance of order," but those "implied powers" could not support common-law jurisdiction over criminal acts. Hudson, supra, at 34. In 1831, Congress amended the Judiciary Act of 1789, allowing federal courts the summary contempt power to punish generally "disobedience or resistance" to court orders. § 1, Act of March 2, 1831, 4 Stat. 487-488. See Bloom v. Illinois, 391 U. S. 194, 202-204 (1968) (discussing evolution of federal courts' statutory contempt power).
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