(Office of the Attorney General, Saipan) — Attorney General Edward Manibusan is pleased to announce that the 37th Annual Attorney General’s Cup speech competition will be held on Friday, May 5th, 2023 at 9:30 am at the Guma Hustisia Supreme Court.
“After a 36-month hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I am delighted to announce the return of the AG’s Cup speech competition,” stated Attorney General Manibusan. “The resumption of the competition is long overdue, but ensuring the safety and health of our students and the community was of significant importance and putting a hold on the event the past couple of years was imperative,” he continued.
The topic for the 37th annual speech competition is “Affirmative Action in Higher Education.” The issue is before the U.S. Supreme Court and is significant as it will have an effect on the Northern Mariana Islands as students seek college admission in the U.S.
The United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments on two cases regarding the issue of affirmative action in college admissions: (1) Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and (2) Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina.
At the heart of these two cases is decades long precedent regarding affirmative action. Affirmative action began as a government remedy to the effects of long-standing discrimination against minorities and women and has consisted of policies, programs, and procedures that give limited preferences to such groups in job hiring, admission to institutions of higher education, the awarding of government contracts, and other social benefits. Typically, affirmative action in the educational arena is a policy which uses race as a basis for admission.
Attorney General Manibusan welcomes the public to attend the event and support the students of the CNMI. For more information on the speech competition, please contact Ms. Andrea Manese at the Office of the Attorney General’s Civil Division at (670) 237-7500 or through email at andrea_manese@cnmioag.org/.
