The character rule -- the prohibition against the use of character to show conduct -- does not bar the use of a person's intent, purpose, plan, preparation, or a similar forward -looking or intentional state of mind to show the person's conduct because such forward-looking pr intentional state of mind are not a character trait, a disposition, or a propensity.

Weil v. Seltzer, 873 F.2d 1453, 1460 (D.C. Cir. 1989) (vacating judgment in survival and wrongful death action in which the trial court allowed the testimony of physician's former patients as evidence of habit, on ground that such evidence was admitted for improper purpose of showing that the physician...If a pattern of behavior of a natural person does not rise to the status of a habit, it may constitute a character trait and such non-habitual behavior may be barred by the prohibition against circumstantial character evidence.

Perez v. Irwin, 963 F.2d 499, 500, 502 (2d Cir. 1992) (use of jury instruction suggesting jurors' need for "moral certainty" of _doubt_ about guilt to acquit, condemned; "In affirming, we observe that judges' consistent use of the same terminology often is criticized as dull legalese; but in some...Some courts have approved and some courts have criticized jury instructions saying that proof beyond a reasonable doubt is proof of guilt to a moral certainty.

United States v. Lauersen, 348 F.3d 329, 340 (2d Cir. 2003) (upholding trial court's admission of nurse's statements as admission by a party's agent because (1) "nurses in [defendant] Lauersen's office were....A statement by an agent or an employee who is not authorized to speak on behalf of the agent's principal or the employee's employer may nonetheless be treated as the statement of the principal or the employer and thus as a vicarious admission that is exempt from the prohibition against hearsay; but such a statement can be imputed to the principal or the employer only if the statement, if by an agent, is about a matter within the scope of the agent's agency or, if by an employee, the statement is about a matter within the scope of the employee's employment.