Current and past NSDA resolutions across Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum, Policy, and Big Questions, each with its key clash, CUDL cases and primers where they exist, and starter sources. Older topics stay useful: for scrimmages, for framework practice, and because arguments recur.
Resolutions verified against the NSDA topics page September 13, 2026. Sources link to institutions, not to articles that expire.
Newest first. Current topics are marked; archived topics remain useful for scrimmages and framework practice.
Key clash: Whether obligations to future people can bind present decisions, and whether the colonization model reproduces historical harms.
Affirmative case Negative case Primer
Starter sources
Key clash: Household electricity prices and grid reliability against investment, capacity, and whether a federal pause fixes a state regulatory problem.
Starter sources
Key clash: Coverage and medical debt against federal cost, transition disruption, and whether a public option solves the same harms.
Starter sources
Key clash: Whether the gap between capability and ethical governance is a present fact or a recurring lag that institutions close.
Starter sources
Key clash: Consent-based legitimacy against the state's protective duty; the record of emergency powers.
Affirmative case Negative case
Starter sources
Key clash: Just war theory and the record of regime-change interventions against sovereignty and unintended consequences.
Starter sources
Key clash: Obligations to citizens against global interdependence and the costs of retrenchment.
Starter sources
Key clash: Local funding for schools and services against housing cost and regressivity.
Starter sources
Key clash: Resources, shipping, and security against environmental risk and Indigenous rights.
Starter sources
Key clash: Whether moral authority requires a divine source, and the record of religious and secular ethics.
Starter sources
Each source above is an institution's home or search page rather than a single article, because articles move and expire. Search the institution for the resolution's key terms, then use the research skills guide to cut cards. Government and peer-reviewed sources beat commentary.
The resolution bank and the archived Nationals cases exist for scrimmages where no one has files. Announce a past resolution, give twenty minutes, run the round.
Tell us which resolution you need prep for and we will add it.
