Cite as: 509 U. S. 688 (1993)
Opinion of Souter, J.
because the contempt charge contained an element not specified by the criminal code sections that formed the basis for the indictment (violation of the CPO). See ante, at 700-703.11
In each instance, however, the second prosecution is barred under Nielsen, Harris as we construed it in Vitale, and Grady. The conduct at issue constituted the conduct in the contempts first charged as well as in the crimes subsequently prosecuted, and the Government's prosecution of Foster twice for the conduct common to both would violate the Double Jeopardy Clause.
VIII
Grady simply applied a rule with roots in our cases going back well over 100 years. Nielsen held that the Double Jeopardy Clause bars successive prosecutions for more than one statutory offense where the charges comprise the same act, and Harris, as understood in Vitale, is properly read as standing for the same rule. Overruling Grady alone cannot remove this principle from our constitutional jurisprudence. Only by uprooting the entire sequence of cases, Grady, Vitale, Harris, and Nielsen, could this constitutional principle be undone. Because I would not do that, I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals. I concur in the judgment of the Court in Dixon and with respect to Count I in Foster, but respectfully dissent from the disposition of the case with respect to Counts II-V in Foster.
11 I note that at least the charge concerning assault with intent to kill would apparently have been barred under the approach taken in Justice Scalia's dissenting opinion in Grady. See n. 9, supra.
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