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Opinion of White, J.
Courts remain free to hold transgressors in contempt and punish them as they see fit. The Government counters that this possibility will prove to be either illusory—if the prosecuting authority declines to initiate proceedings out of fear that they could jeopardize more substantial punishment for the underlying crime—or too costly—if the prosecuting authority, the risk notwithstanding, chooses to go forward. But it is not fanciful to imagine that judges and prosecutors will select a third option, which is to ensure, where necessary or advisable, that the contempt and the substantive charge be tried at the same time, in which case the double jeopardy issue "would be limited to ensuring that the total punishment did not exceed that authorized by the legislature." United States v. Halper, 490 U. S. 435, 450 (1989). Indeed, the Court recently exercised its supervisory power to suggest that a federal court "ordinarily should first request the appropriate prosecuting authority to prosecute contempt actions, and should appoint a private prosecutor only if that request is denied." Young, 481 U. S., at 801. Just as "[i]n practice, courts can reasonably expect that the public prosecutor will accept the responsibility for prosecution," ibid., so too can the public prosecutor reasonably anticipate that the court will agree to some delay if needed to bring the two actions together.
Against this backdrop, the appeal of the principle of necessity loses much of its force. Ultimately, the urgency of punishing such contempt violations is no less, but by the same token no more, than that of punishing violations of criminal laws of general application—in which case, we simply do not question the defendant's right to the "protections worked out carefully over the years and deemed fundamental to our system of justice," Bloom v. Illinois, 391 U. S., at 208, including the protection of the Double Jeopardy Clause. "Perhaps to some extent we sacrifice efficiency, expedition, and economy, but the choice . . . has been made, and retained, in the Consti-
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