The contest is organized by the Ninth Circuit Public Information and Community Outreach (PICO) Committee. High school students will have the opportunity to win cash prizes.
The 2025 Ninth Circuit Civics Contest prompt "When Duty Calls: Why Exercising the Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship is Important to Me" challenges you to dive into the rights and responsibilities of being a U.S. citizen and explore deeply how they affect you and how you can affect them. There is no one correct way to answer the prompt and no specific rights you are expected to highlight. The contest is open to high school students in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington state, the United States Territory of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Students in the 9th through 12th grades attending public, private, parochial and charter schools and home-schooled students of equivalent grade status, are invited to participate. Children of federal judges, chambers staff and employees of federal court offices are not eligible to participate. Entries will be accepted beginning January 8, 2025. Deadline for entries is 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on March 7, 2025.
Contest rules are available at: https://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/civicscontest.
The United States District Court for the District of the Northern Mariana Islands will conduct a local contest to select finalists for the circuit-wide competition. The top three finishers in the essay and video competitions at the local level will receive prizes of $200 for 1st place, $150 for 2nd place and $100 for 3rd place and then go on to compete in the circuit-wide contest. Students must reside in the Northern Mariana Islands. For more information about the district contest, please contact: Justin Poon – (670) 237-1200 / justin_poon@nmid.uscourts.gov or Amanda Hayes – (670) 237-1230 / amanda_hayes@nmid.uscourts.gov.