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of CCE. Id., at 158 (opinion concurring in judgment in part and dissenting in part). In Part II of this opinion we have rejected that view. Accordingly, even if we could infer that the plurality had silently reached the rather bizarre conclusion that Congress intended to allow dual convictions but to preclude other multiple punishments, only four Justices would have supported it, with four others explicitly disagreeing. As to this issue, then, the judgment amounts at best to nothing more than an unexplained affirmance by an equally divided court—a judgment not entitled to precedential weight no matter what reasoning may have supported it. See Neil v. Biggers, 409 U. S. 188, 192 (1972). The more important message conveyed by Jeffers is found not in the bare judgment, but in the plurality's conclusion, joined by the four dissenters, that CCE and conspiracy are insufficiently distinct to justify a finding that Congress intended to allow punishments for both when they rest on the same activity.14
14 The Government suggests that convictions are authorized for both §§ 846 and 848 because they are different sections of the United States Code. Brief for United States 16. This does not rise to the level of the clear statement necessary for us to conclude that despite the identity of the statutory elements, Congress intended to allow multiple punishments. After all, we concluded in Ball that the statutes at issue did not authorize separate convictions, and they were even more distant in the Code. See 470 U. S., at 863-864 (discussing 18 U. S. C. § 922(h) and 18 U. S. C. App. § 1202(a) (1984)). If anything, the proximity of §§ 846 and 848 indicates that Congress understood them to be directed to similar, rather than separate, evils. Cf. Albernaz v. United States, 450 U. S. 333, 343 (1981).
The Government further discerns congressional intent to allow multiple punishment from "significant differences" between Ball and this case. Brief for United States 19-24. None of its arguments, however, demonstrates that Congress "specially authorized" convictions for both the greater and lesser included offenses we address today. Whalen, 445 U. S., at 693. The Government suggests, for example, that the statutes in Ball were directed at virtually identical activity, while CCE and conspiracy are not. As we have already concluded, however, every proof of a CCE will demonstrate a conspiracy based on the same facts. That overlap is enough to conclude, absent more, that Congress did not intend to allow punishments for both.
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