Biometric Registration: The Liquidation of US Democracy?

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Acknowledgements

She would like to thank Barbara Biesecker for her comments on this essay.

Notes

1. Giorgio Agamben, “No to Biopolitical Tatooing.”

2. Ulrich Beck, “The Silence of Words and Political Dynamics in the World Risk Society,” Logos 1, issue 4 (2002): 9.

3. Jeremy Packer, “Becoming Bombs: Mobilizing Mobility in the War on Terror,” Cultural Studies 20, issue 4–5 (2006): 378.

4. Patrick Smith, “The Airport Security Follies,” Jet Lagged: Navigating the Unfriendly Skies, Blog comment posted 28 December 2007, http://jetlagged.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/the-airport-security-follies/ (accessed 29 December 2007).

5. Patrick Smith, “The Airport Security Follies,” Jet Lagged: Navigating the Unfriendly Skies, Blog comment posted 28 December 2007, http://jetlagged.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/the-airport-security-follies/ (accessed 29 December 2007).

6. I am borrowing the phrase “liquidation of democracy” from Herbert Tingsten, quoted in Giorgio Agamben, The State of Exception (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005). Tingsten argues that the systematic and regular use of the “full powers law” by the executive lead to the “liquidation” of democracy.

7. Giorgio Agamben, The State of Exception (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 1.

8. American Civil Liberties Union, “Supreme Court Hears ACLU's Landmark Voter ID Case,” 9 January 2008, http://www.aclu.org/votingrights/gen33555prs20080109.html (accessed 10 January 2008).

9. Linda Greenhouse, “Justices Indicate They May Uphold Voter ID Rules,” New York Times, 10 January 2008, A1.

10. Linda Greenhouse, “Justices Indicate They May Uphold Voter ID Rules,” New York Times, 10 January 2008, A1.

11. Linda Greenhouse, “Justices Indicate They May Uphold Voter ID Rules,” New York Times, 10 January 2008, A1.

12. Richard L. Hasen, “Fraud Reform? How Efforts to ID Voting Problems Have Become a Partisan Mess,” Slate, 22 February, 2006, http://www.slate.com/id/2136776/ (accessed 10 January 2008).

13. Slavoj Zizek, “Knight of the Living Dead,” New York Times, 24 March 2007, A13.

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Kelly Gates

Kelly Gates is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at University of California, San Diego