Dual sovereignty

Dual sovereignty doctrine

The double jeopardy clause does not generally protect a person from being prosecuted by both a state government and the United States federal government for the same act, nor does it protect a person from being prosecuted by multiple states for the same act. Because American law considers each of the state governments to be distinct from the federal government of the United States as a whole, with its own laws, court systems, and sovereignty, these parallel prosecutions are considered to be different "offenses" under the double jeopardy clause, and the decisions of one government on what to prosecute or not prosecute are not considered to be binding upon the other. This is known as the "dual sovereignty" or "separate sovereigns" doctrine.