706
Opinion of the Court
His second case comes almost a century later. Brown v. Ohio, 432 U. S. 161 (1977), contains no support for his position except a footnote that cites Nielsen for the proposition that "[t]he Blockburger test is not the only standard for determining whether successive prosecutions impermissibly involve the same offense." Brown, supra, at 166-167, n. 6. Not only is this footnote the purest dictum, but it flatly contradicts the text of the opinion which, on the very next page, describes Nielsen as the first Supreme Court case to endorse the Blockburger rule. Brown, supra, at 168. Quoting that suspect dictum multiple times, see post, at 748, 754, cannot convert it into case law. See United States Nat. Bank of Ore. v. Independent Ins. Agents of America, Inc., 508 U. S. 439, 463, n. 11 (1993) (emphasizing "the need to distinguish an opinion's holding from its dicta"). The holding of Brown, like that of Nielsen, rests squarely upon the existence of a lesser included offense. 432 U. S., at 162 (setting out question presented).
The third case is Harris, which Justice Souter asserts was a reaffirmation of what he contends was the earlier holding in Nielsen, that the Blockburger test is "insufficien[t] for determining when a successive prosecution [is] barred," and that conduct, and not merely elements of the offense, must be the object of inquiry. Post, at 755. Surely not. Harris never uses the word "conduct," and its entire discussion focuses on the elements of the two offenses. See, e. g., 433 U. S., at 682-683, n. (to prove felony murder, "it was necessary for all the ingredients of the underlying felony" to be proved). Far from validating Justice Souter's extraordinarily implausible reading of Nielsen, Harris plainly rejects that reading, treating the earlier case as having focused (like Blockburger) upon the elements of the offense. Immedi-reversion," and "incidents" to a contract). That is perfectly clear from the very next sentence of Nielsen (which Justice Souter does not quote): "It may be contended that adultery is not an incident of unlawful cohabitation . . . ." 131 U. S., at 189.
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