Cite as: 509 U. S. 688 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
many early American cases construing the Double Jeopardy Clause, which support only an "elements" test. See Grady, supra, at 533-535 (Scalia, J., dissenting).14
But Grady was not only wrong in principle; it has already proved unstable in application. Less than two years after it came down, in United States v. Felix, 503 U. S. 378 (1992), we were forced to recognize a large exception to it. There we concluded that a subsequent prosecution for conspiracy to manufacture, possess, and distribute methamphetamine was not barred by a previous conviction for attempt to manufacture the same substance. We offered as a justification for avoiding a "literal" (i. e., faithful) reading of Grady "longstanding authority" to the effect that prosecution for conspiracy is not precluded by prior prosecution for the substantive offense. Felix, supra, at 388-391. Of course the very existence of such a large and longstanding "exception" to the
true that our analysis would produce a result contrary to the opinion in Grafton. Under the traditional Blockburger elements test, assassination, as defined in Article 403 of the Philippines Penal Code, contained an element that homicide, as defined in Article 404, did not; but, as the Court noted, homicide did not contain any element not included in assassination. 206 U. S., at 350 ("One crime may be a constituent part of the other"); accord, id., at 355 (he "could not subsequently be tried for the same offense"). Grafton could therefore not later be prosecuted for assassination, much less later be convicted for the very same homicide offense of which he had been acquitted. (In fact, Grafton may simply have been decided on grounds of collateral estoppel, see id., at 349-351, an issue that we specifically decline to reach in this case, see n. 17, infra.)
14 It is unclear what definition of "same offence" Justice Souter would have us adopt for successive prosecution. At times, he appears content with our having added to Blockburger the Grady same-conduct test. At other times, however, he adopts an ultra-Grady "same transaction" rule, which would require the Government to try together all offenses (regardless of the differences in the statutes) based on one event. See post, at 747, 761. Of course, the same-transaction test, long espoused by Justice Brennan, see, e. g., Brown v. Ohio, 432 U. S. 161, 170 (1977) (concurring opinion), has been consistently rejected by the Court. See, e. g., Garrett v. United States, 471 U. S. 773, 790 (1985).
709
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