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 new rules went into effect and it is possible to look back at the effect of the rules with perspective and examine the impact they had on trends and changes in the law of evidence in the United States
