Rule 802: The Rule Against Hearsay

Rule 802 states the fundamental hearsay prohibition: hearsay is not admissible. This is one of the most important exclusionary rules in evidence law. The rationale is that out-of-court statements lack the traditional safeguards of in-court testimony — the declarant was not under oath, was not subject to cross-examination, and the jury could not observe the declarant's demeanor.

However, Rule 802 immediately qualifies this prohibition by noting three sources that can create exceptions: federal statutes, the Federal Rules of Evidence themselves, and other Supreme Court rules. In practice, the exceptions nearly swallow the rule. Between the exclusions in Rule 801(d) (prior statements and opposing party statements), the 23 exceptions in Rule 803 (available regardless of declarant's availability), the 5 exceptions in Rule 804 (available only when the declarant is unavailable), and the residual exception in Rule 807, hearsay that meets one of these exceptions is routinely admitted.

The hearsay rule is often described as the rule with more exceptions than applications. In studying evidence law, the real work lies not in understanding the basic prohibition but in mastering the many exceptions and their specific requirements.