Cite as: 522 U. S. 93 (1997)
Stevens, J., concurring in judgment
"Megan's Law." E. B. v. Poritz, 914 F. Supp. 85 (NJ 1996), rev'd, E. B. v. Verniero, 119 F. 3d 1077 (CA3 1997). Thus, the cases cited by the Court surely do not indicate any need to revisit Halper.
The Court also claims that two practical flaws in the Halper opinion warrant a prompt adjustment in our double jeopardy jurisprudence. First, the Court asserts that Halper's test is unworkable because it permits only successive sanctions that are "solely" remedial. Ante, at 102. Though portions of Halper were consistent with such a reading, the express statement of its holding was much narrower.3 Of
greater importance, the Court has since clarified this very point:
"Whether a particular sanction 'cannot fairly be said solely to serve a remedial purpose' is an inquiry radically different from that we have traditionally employed in order to determine whether, as a categorical matter, a civil sanction is subject to the Double Jeopardy Clause. Yet nowhere in Halper does the Court purport to make such a sweeping change in the law, instead emphasizing repeatedly the narrow scope of its decision." United States v. Ursery, 518 U. S. 267, 285, n. 2 (1996).
Having just recently emphasized Halper's narrow rule in Ursery, it is quite odd for the Court now to suggest that its overbreadth has created some sort of judicial emergency.
Second, the Court expresses the concern that when a civil proceeding follows a criminal punishment, Halper would require a court to wait until judgment is imposed in the successive proceeding before deciding whether the latter sanction violates double jeopardy. Ante, at 102. That concern is
3 "We . . . hold that under the Double Jeopardy Clause a defendant who already has been punished in a criminal prosecution may not be subjected to an additional civil sanction to the extent that the second sanction may not fairly be characterized as remedial, but only as a deterrent or retribution." United States v. Halper, 490 U. S. 435, 448-449 (1989).
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