Basic Downloads

Are you new to speech and debate? The following downloads are for you. They contain introductions to various events that the Monument Membership explores. These downloads are updated every summer to prepare for the new year of competition.

Your Basic Downloads Source Material for Season 22:

File Name	S22-Policy-NCFCA-38A-NEG-PLRAExhaustion.docx
File Size	57.13 KB
Date added	March 7, 2022
Category	Policy (NCFCA)
Author	Vance Trefethen

Resolved: The United States Federal Government should significantly reform its policies regarding convicted prisoners under federal jurisdiction

Case Summary: The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) contains a number of provisions to discourage prisoners from filing hundreds of useless lawsuits to clog up the courts and waste everyone’s time. AFF is worried that prisoners may be denied valid lawsuits simply because of minor paperwork errors. There are several variations of PLRA reform including repealing it, replacing it with PARA, changing the standards of injury, and repealing only the “Exhaustion” rule. This brief covers only the Exhaustion rule.
The Exhaustion rule says a prisoner must “exhaust” (comply with and completely follow to the finish) all administrative complaint channels within the prison system itself before taking his complaint to court. AFF believes that prisons are creating extra hurdles and excuses to deny valid claims by making the process so complicated that it cannot successfully be followed, such that almost every complaint will be dismissed from court on the grounds of failing the Exhaustion rule. This brief points out, among other things, that if prisoners can’t follow the administrative complaint rules (so we just let them bypass and go right to federal court), they don’t have a prayer anyway, because federal court procedures are way more complicated – so their complaints will fail anyway. And we still have tens of thousands of federal lawsuits in Status Quo even with the supposedly “too complex” rules that supposedly keep valid claims out of court. Creating a standard that says they don’t have to follow the exhaustion rule means prisoners will intentionally bypass the administrative process and send everything directly to federal court. And that would defeat the entire purpose of PLRA and clog up federal courts again with thousands of useless lawsuits.

Download Your Preseason Documents, too:

You may still access Season 21 downloads here.

All Season 22 Basic Downloads will be updated by August 31, 2021. They will remain available through Season 22.

Easy Entry to the World of Speech and Debate

All Members have access to the digital copy of Easy Entry to the World of Speech and Debate by Chris Jeub. Download it below or order a hard copy.

Season 22 Release Schedule

Monument releases content all year long, from one national tournament to another, in what we call "seasons." We are entering Season 22 (2021-2022). For a list of all Member downloads for Season 21, click here. The following is the general release schedule for Season 22:

End of Season 21 - Officially archived on June 28, 2021. The new Season 22 releases begin July 5, 2021.
July-August - The first Monument Monday releases July 5, 2021. Basic informational material will continue through the summer (e.g. summaries, resolutional articles, etc.).
August 30, 2021 - End of the Pre-season, beginning of the official year of Monument Speech and Debate.
~~Christmas~~ Thanksgiving 2021 (we finished early!) - All foundational downloads are complete! Summaries of all releases are now available.
Through March 2022 - BONUS material released to members on a more as-needed basis using our Coaching Request Form.
April-June, 2022 - Qualifier and Nationals Preparation work is arranged...and Monument Members will be prepared to win!

Season 22 Debate Resolutions

Resolutions for Season 22 are posted here as they are announced by various speech and debate leagues.

Policy (all season):
- NCFCA: "Resolved: The United States Federal Government should significantly reform its policies regarding convicted prisoners under federal jurisdiction."
- NSDA: "Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its protection of water resources in the United States."
- NSDA Vote for Season 23 (Due December 15, 2021):
  - OPTION 1 – GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE – Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its support of multilateral greenhouse gas emission reduction regimes.
  - OPTION 2 – GLOBAL GEO-POLITICAL CRISIS: EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES – Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its security cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in one or more of the following areas: artificial intelligence, biotechnology, cybersecurity.
- Stoa: "Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially reform the use of Artificial Intelligence technology."
Lincoln-Douglas:
- NCFCA (all season): "Resolved: In the context of innovation, the proactionary principle ought to be valued above the precautionary principle."
- NSDA releases six resolutions through the year:
  - Sept/Oct Novice: "Resolved: Civil disobedience in a democracy is morally justified."
  - Sept/Oct Varsity: "Resolved: The member nations of the World Trade Organization ought to reduce intellectual property protections for medicines."
  - Nov/Dec: "Resolved: A just government ought to recognize an unconditional right of workers to strike."
  - Jan/Feb: "Resolved: The appropriation of outer space by private entities is unjust."
  - Next release is due February 1, 2022.
- Stoa (all season): "Resolved: In the field of biomedical engineering, restraint ought to be prioritized over scientific advancement."
Other Formats:
- Big Questions Debate (all season): "Resolved: On balance, societies benefit from religious belief and practice."
- Public Forum for Sept/Oct: "Resolved: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization should substantially increase its defense commitments to the Baltic states."
- Public Forum for Nov/Dec: "Resolved: Increased United States federal regulation of cryptocurrency transactions and/or assets will produce more benefits than harms."
- Public Forum for January: "Resolved: The United States federal government should legalize all illicit drugs."
- Public Forum's next release is due January 1, 2022.

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