726
Opinion of White, J.
ing its jurisdiction and authority from the United States and is acquitted or convicted, he cannot again be tried for the same offense in another tribunal deriving its jurisdiction and authority from the United States. . . . [T]he same acts constituting a crime against the United States cannot, after the acquittal or conviction of the accused in a court of competent jurisdiction, be made the basis of a second trial of the accused for that crime in the same or in another court, civil or military, of the same government. Congress has chosen, in its discretion, to confer upon general courts-martial authority to try an officer or soldier for any crime, not capital, committed by him in the territory in which he is serving. When that was done the judgment of such military court was placed upon the same level as the judgments of other tribunals when the inquiry arises whether an accused was, in virtue of that judgment, put in jeopardy of life or limb." Id., at 352.
Grafton, and the principle it embodies, are controlling. The Superior Court and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals were created by Congress, pursuant to its power under Article I of the Constitution. See Palmore v. United States, 411 U. S. 389 (1973). In addition, the specific power exercised by the courts in this case were bestowed by the Legislature. See ante, at 691. As we observed in United States v. Providence Journal Co., 485 U. S. 693 (1988), "[t]he fact that the allegedly criminal conduct concerns a violation of a court order instead of common law or a statutory prohibition does not render the prosecution any less an exercise of the sovereign power of the United States." Id., at 700. It is past dispute, in other words, that "the two tribunals that tried the accused exert all their powers under and by the authority of the same government—that of the United States," Grafton, supra, at 355, and, therefore, that the dual
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