American Studies without America: Native Feminisms and the Nation-State

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  • ASAndrea Smith
    Andrea Smith
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Abstract
Post 9/11, Bush's evocation of sovereignty has prompted Judith Butler to define sovereignty as "providing legitimacy of the rule of law and offering a guarantor for the presentational claims of state power."3 According to Butler, the resurgence of sovereignty happens in a context of "suspension of law,"4 whereby the nation can, in the name of "sovereignty," act against "existing legal frameworks, civil, military, and international . . . Under this mantle of sovereignty, the state proceeds to extend its own power to imprison indefinitely a group of people without trial."5 Amy Kaplan similarly describes Bush's policies as rendering increasing numbers of people under U.S. jurisdiction as "less deserving of . . . constitutional rights."6 Thus, Bush's strategies are deemed a suspension of the law. It is said that his administration is unconstitutional, [End Page 309] thus eroding civil liberties and U.S. democracy. From this perspective, progressives are called to uphold the law, defend the U.S. constitution, and protect civil liberties.

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