Antonin Scalia

“ The Double Jeopardy Clause is and has always been, not a provision designed to assure reason and justice in the particular case, but the embodiment of technical, prophylactic rules that require the Government to turn square corners. Whenever it is applied to release a criminal deserving of punishment it frustrates justice in the particular case, but for the greater purpose of assuring repose in the totality of criminal prosecutions and sentences. ”

“ That the Government seeks the civil penalty in a second proceeding is critical in triggering the protections of the Double Jeopardy Clause. Since a legislature may authorize cumulative punishment under two statutes for a single course of conduct, the multiple-punishment inquiry in the context of a single proceeding focuses on whether the legislature actually authorized the cumulative punishment. ”

“ If, for example, a judge imposed only a 15-year sentence under a statute that permitted 15 years to life, he could-as far as the Court's understanding of the Double Jeopardy Clause is concerned-have second thoughts after the defendant has served that time, and add on another 10 years. ”