Law Commons^™

Federal Rules Of Evidence 413, 414, And 415: Fifteen Years Of Hindsight And Where The Law Should Go From Here, Bryan C. Hathorn

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

In 1995, Congress added three rules, which governed the admissibility of "prior sexual misconduct" in federal trials, to the Federal Rules of Evidence. The procedure by which Congress added the rules was outside of the normal procedure for the creation of federal rules, it was highly controversial, and it was done over the objections of the judicial conference. The controversy surrounding the rules produced a flurry of scholarship on the rules, which continued for about five years. After this initial period, the storm quieted with a reduced amount of scholarship on the subject. It is now fifteen years since the …