The Glitter Band was a collection of roughly ten thousand orbital habitats around Yellowstone. Policed by the Panoply, the only rights guaranteed to any citizen were the right to vote and the right to unobstructed access to abstraction. The laws of individual habitats varied wildly, up-to-and-including voluntary tyrannies, as the overarching philosophy of Demarchy -- which held unassailable dominance near Yellowstone -- encouraged experimentation with social systems.
The Glitter Band was shattered circa 2510 as a result of the Melding Plague. Its remnants became known as the Rust Belt.