Confrontation Clause
clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to be confronted with the witnesses against him." The right only applies to criminal prosecutions, not civil cases or other proceedings. Generally, the right is to have a face-to-face confrontation with witnesses who are offering testimonial evidence against the accused in the form of cross-examination during a trial. The Fourteenth Amendment makes the right to confrontation applicable to the states and not just the federal government.
In 2004, the Supreme Court of the United States formulated a new test in Crawford v. Washington to determine whether the Confrontation Clause applies in a criminal case.
The Confrontation Clause has its roots in both English common law, protecting the right of cross-examination, and Roman law, which guaranteed persons accused of a crime the right to look their accusers in the eye. In noting the right's long history, the United States Supreme Court has cited Acts of the Apostles 25:16, which reports the Roman governor Porcius Festus, discussing the proper treatment of his prisoner Paul: "It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man up to die before the accused has met his accusers face-to-face, and has been given a chance to defend himself against the charges." It is also cited in Shakespeare's Richard II, Blackstone's treatises, and statutes.
Testimonial hearsay
In 2004, in Crawford v. Washington, the Supreme Court of the United States significantly redefined the application of the Sixth Amendment's right to confrontation.
“Confrontation Clause” enters the record as clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Confrontation, Clause and clause can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 22, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5160294. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2004.
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This entry incorporates text from “Confrontation Clause” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.