The law of evidence governs the proof of facts and the inferences flowing from such facts during the trial of civil and criminal lawsuits. Before the twentieth century, evidence law was largely the product of decisional law. During the twentieth century, projects such as the California Evidence Code and the Uniform Rules of Evidence encouraged the codification of those common law evidence rules. In 1965, Chief Justice Earl Warren appointed an advisory committee of fifteen to draft the new rules. The committee was composed of U.S. lawyers and U.S. legal scholars.
The Federal Rules of Evidence began as rules proposed pursuant to a statutory grant of authority, the Rules Enabling Act, but were eventually enacted as statutory law.
The United States Supreme Court circulated drafts of the FRE in 1969, 1971 and 1972, but Congress then exercised its power under the Rules Enabling Act to suspend implementation of the FRE until it could study them further. After a long delay blamed on the Watergate scandal, the FRE became federal law on January 2, 1975, when President Ford signed An Act to Establish Rules of Evidence for Certain Courts and Proceedings, Pub. L. 93–595, 88 Stat. 1926.[2]
The law was enacted only after Congress made a series of modifications to the proposed rules. Much of the debate on the Rules stemmed from concerns that came to lawmakers' attention due to the Watergate scandal, particularly questions of privilege.[3] Some of the most prominent congressional amendments when Congress adopted the rules included:
The Advisory Committee Notes[8] still function as an important source of material used by courts to interpret the Rules.
Even though the Federal Rules of Evidence are statutory, the Supreme Court is empowered to amend the Rules, subject to congressional disapproval. However, amendments creating, abolishing, or modifying privileges require affirmative approval by Congress under 28 U.S.C. § 2074.
Purpose[edit]
In general, the purpose of rules of evidence is to regulate the evidence that the jury may use to reach a verdict. Historically, the rules of evidence reflected a marked distrust of jurors.[9][10] The Federal Rules of Evidence strive to eliminate this distrust, and encourage admitting evidence in close cases. Even so, there are some rules that perpetuate the historical mistrust of jurors, expressly limiting the kind of evidence they may receive or the purpose for which they may consider it.
At the same time, the Rules center on a few basic ideas – relevance, unfair surprise, efficiency, reliability, and overall fairness of the adversary process. The Rules grant trial judges broad discretion to admit evidence in the face of competing arguments from the parties. This ensures that the jury has a broad spectrum of evidence before it, but not so much evidence that is repetitive, inflammatory, or confusing. The Rules define relevance broadly and relax the common-law prohibitions on witnesses' competence to testify. Hearsay standards are similarly relaxed, as are the standards for authenticating written documents. At the same time, the judge retains power to exclude evidence that has too great a danger for unfair prejudice to a party due to its inflammatory, repetitive, or confusing nature or its propensity to waste the court's time.
Restyling[edit]
On December 1, 2011, the restyled Federal Rules of Evidence became effective.[13]
Since the early 2000s, an effort had been underway to restyle the Federal Rules of Evidence as well as other federal court rules (e.g. the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure). According to a statement by the advisory committee that had drafted the restyled rules, the restyling was not to make substantive changes to the evidentiary rules but was instead purely stylistic. On April 26, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court approved the restyled amendments to the Federal Rules of Evidence.[14] Under the Rules Enabling Act,[15] the restyled amendments took effect.[16]
2019 Amendment[edit]
On December 1, 2019, there was an amendment to Rule 807 Residual Exception, which provides the court more discretion to admit statements under Rule 807.[17] The amendment was proposed and accepted on April 25, 2019. Previously the "equivalence" standard was difficult for the court system to apply, so it was eliminated and replaced with considering corroborating evidence in a uniform approach.[18]
2020 Amendment[edit]
On December 1, 2020, there was an amendment to Rule 404(b) Crimes, Wrongs, or Acts, to provide additional notice requirements in the prosecution of a criminal case.[19] The amendment was proposed and accepted on April 27, 2019. It also makes note that the writing requirement for notice can be satisfied by an electronic notice.[20]
2023 Amendment[edit]
On December 1, 2023, a further amendment went into effect. Rules 106, 615, and 702 were affected.