Cross Examination Debate Association

The Cross Examination Debate Association is the largest intercollegiate policy debate association in the United States. Throughout the school year, CEDA sanctions over 60 tournaments throughout the nation, including an annual National Championship Tournament that brings together over 175 individual debate teams from across the nation to compete on the basis of research, persuasive speaking, argumentation, and philosophy.
For a number of years, CEDA employed a two-person team value debate format. CEDA utilized two topics each year, one governing the fall semester and the second governing the spring semester. For the spring 1996 topic, it was voted to continue debating the fall topic about Mexico. Beginning with the 1996–1997 season, however, CEDA has employed a single, year-long policy debate topic.

History of Winners and Topics

Previous Winners

1986 – Macalester College
1987 – Macalester College
1988 – Southern Illinois University
1989 – Gonzaga University
1990 – University of Central Oklahoma
1991 – Kansas State University
1992 – Missouri State University
1993 – Kansas State University
1994 – University of Missouri–Kansas City
1995 – Michigan State University
1996 – Southern Illinois University
1997 – Northwestern University
1998 – Emory University
1999 – Whitman College
2000 – State University of West Georgia
2001 – State University of West Georgia
2002 – Fort Hays State University
2003 – New York University
2004 – Emory University
2005 – University of California, Berkeley
2006 – Harvard University
2007 – University of Oklahoma
2008 – Towson University
2009 – University of Oklahoma
2010 – University of Oklahoma
2011 – Kansas State University
2012 – University of Oklahoma
2013 – Emporia State University
2014 – Towson University
2015 – Towson University
2016 – University of Vermont
2017 – Rutgers University
2018 – University of Iowa
2019 – University of Oklahoma
2020 – Tournament canceled due to COVID-19
2021 – University of Texas
2022 – Wake Forest University
2023 – Wake Forest University
2024 – Binghamton University
2025 – University of Iowa

Topics

* 2010–2011 – "Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially increase the number of and/or substantially expand beneficiary eligibility for its visas for one or more of the following: employment-based immigrant visas, nonimmigrant temporary worker visas, family-based visas, human trafficking-based visas."
* 2011–2012 – "Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially increase its democracy assistance for one or more of the following: Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen."
* 2012–2013 – "Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially reduce restrictions on and/or substantially increase financial incentives for energy production in the United States of one or more of the following: coal, crude oil, natural gas, nuclear power, solar power, wind power."
* 2013–2014 – "Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially increase statutory and/or judicial restrictions on the war powers authority of the President of the United States in one or more of the following areas: targeted killing; indefinite detention; offensive cyber operations; or introducing United States Armed Forces into hostilities."
* 2014–2015 – "Resolved: The United States should legalize all or nearly all of one or more of the following in the United States: marijuana, prostitution, online gambling, the sale of human organs, physician assisted suicide."
* 2015–2016 – "Resolved: The United States should significantly reduce its military presence in one or more of the following: the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, the Greater Horn of Africa, Northeast Asia."
* 2016–2017 – "Resolved: The United States Federal Government should establish a domestic climate policy, including at least substantially increasing restrictions on private sector emissions of greenhouse gases in the United States."
* 2017–2018 – "Resolved: The United States Federal Government should establish national health insurance in the United States."
* 2018– 2019 – "Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially increase statutory and/or judicial restrictions on the executive power of the President of the United States in one or more of the following areas: authority to conduct first-use nuclear strikes; congressionally delegated trade power; exit from congressional-executive agreements and Article II treaties; judicial deference to all or nearly all federal administrative agency interpretations of statutes and/or regulations; the bulk incidental collection of all or nearly all foreign intelligence information on United States persons without a warrant."
* 2019–2020 – "Resolved: The United States Federal Government should establish a national space policy substantially increasing its international space cooperation with the People’s Republic of China and/or the Russian Federation in one or more of the following areas:
** arms control of space weapons;
** exchange and management of space situational awareness information;
** joint human spaceflight for deep space exploration;
** planetary defense;
** space traffic management;
** space-based solar power."
2020–2021 – "Resolved: The United States Federal Government should reduce its alliance commitments with Japan, the Republic of Korea, North Atlantic Treaty Organization member states, and/or the Republic of the Philippines, by at least substantially limiting the conditions under which its defense pact can be activated."
2021–2022 – Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially increase prohibitions on anticompetitive business practices by the private sector by at least expanding the scope of its core antitrust laws.
2022–2023 – "Resolved: The United States should vest legal rights and/or duties in one or more of the following: artificial intelligence, nature, nonhuman animal species."
2023–2024 – "Resolved: The United States should restrict its nuclear forces in one or more of the following ways: adopting a nuclear no-first use policy; eliminating one or more of the legs of its nuclear triad; disarming its nuclear forces."
2024–2025 – "Resolved: The United States Federal Government should adopt a clean energy policy for decarbonization in the United States, including a market-based instrument."
2025–2026 – "Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially strengthen collective bargaining rights for workers in the United States."