The Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment (the Clause) guarantees that no person shall “be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life and limb.” In the most recent case construing it, the Supreme Court in Gamble v. United States refused to abandon the “dual-sovereignty” doctrine and thereby reaffirmed “that a crime under one sovereign’s laws is not ‘the same offence’ as a crime under the laws of another sovereign.” 139 S.Ct. 1960, 1964 (June 17, 2019).

The case continues the court’s longstanding adherence to the doctrine. Under it, “a State may prosecute a defendant under state law even if the Federal Government has prosecuted him for the same conduct under a federal statute” or a federal prosecution may follow a state prosecution for the same offense. The latter occurred in Gamble. Id. Earlier cases grounded in the dual-sovereignty principle include Abbate v. U.S., 359 U.S. 187 (1959), Bartkus v. Illinois, 359 U.S. 121 (1959) and U.S. v. Lanza, 260 U.S. 377 (1922).

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