800
Scalia, J., dissenting
Justice Stone's dissent in Bradley displays his uncertainty regarding the doctrinal basis for Lange—as well as his view that if the basis was the Double Jeopardy Clause it was wrong: "So far as Ex parte Lange is regarded here as resting on the ground that it would be double jeopardy to compel the offender to serve the prison sentence after remission of the fine on the same day on which it was paid, I think its authority should be reexamined and rejected." 318 U. S., at 53.
Between Lange and our decision five Terms ago in United States v. Halper, 490 U. S. 435 (1989), our cases often stated that the Double Jeopardy Clause protects against both successive prosecutions and successive punishments for the same criminal offense. See, e. g., North Carolina v. Pearce, supra, at 717; Illinois v. Vitale, 447 U. S. 410, 415 (1980); Ohio v. Johnson, 467 U. S. 493, 498-499 (1984). But the repetition of a dictum does not turn it into a holding, and an examination of the cases discussing the prohibition against multiple punishments demonstrates that, until Halper, the Court never invalidated a legislatively authorized successive punishment. The dispositions were entirely consistent with the proposition that the restriction derived exclusively from the due process requirement of legislative authorization. Indeed, some cases expressed the restriction in precisely that fashion. See, e. g., Johnson, supra, at 499, and n. 8 ("[P]rotection against cumulative punishmen[t] is designed to ensure that the sentencing discretion of courts is confined to the limits established by the legislature"); Albernaz v. United States, 450 U. S. 333, 344 (1981) ("[T]he question of what punishments are constitutionally permissible is not different from the question of what punishments the Legislative Branch intended to be imposed"); United States v. DiFrancesco, 449 U. S. 117, 139 (1980) ("No double jeopardy problem would have been presented in Ex parte Lange if Congress had provided that the offense there was punishable by both fine and imprisonment, even though that is mul-
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