Cite as: 512 U. S. 821 (1994)
Scalia, J., concurring
of an identifiable act (or perhaps cessation of continuing performance of an identifiable act). A general prohibition for the future does not lend itself to enforcement through conditional incarceration, since no single act (or the cessation of no single act) can demonstrate compliance and justify release. One court has expressed the difference between criminal and civil contempts as follows: "Punishment in criminal contempt cannot undo or remedy the thing which has been done, but in civil contempt punishment remedies the disobedience." In re Fox, 96 F. 2d 23, 25 (CA3 1938).
As one would expect from this, the orders that underlay civil contempt fines or incarceration were usually mandatory rather than prohibitory, see Gompers, supra, at 442, directing litigants to perform acts that would further the litigation (for example, turning over a document), or give effect to the court's judgment (for example, executing a deed of conveyance). The latter category of order was particularly common, since the jurisdiction of equity courts was generally in personam rather than in rem, and the relief they decreed would almost always be a directive to an individual to perform an act with regard to property at issue. See 4 J. Pomeroy, Equity Jurisprudence § 1433, pp. 3386-3388 (4th ed. 1919). The mandatory injunctions issued upon termination of litigation usually required "a single simple act." H. Mc-Clintock, Principles of Equity § 15, pp. 32-33 (2d ed. 1948). Indeed, there was a "historical prejudice of the court of chancery against rendering decrees which called for more than a single affirmative act." Id., § 61, at 160. And where specific performance of contracts was sought, it was the categorical rule that no decree would issue that required ongoing supervision. See, e. g., Marble Co. v. Ripley, 10 Wall. 339, 358-359 (1870); see also McClintock, supra, § 61, at 160-161; 1 J. Story, Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence § 778b, p. 782 (Redfield ed.; 10th ed. 1870). Compliance with these "single act" mandates could, in addition to being simple, be
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