A Library of Congress website temporarily omitted parts of Article 1 due to a coding error corrected later that day.
It didn’t take long for internet sleuths to notice that something was missing on the Library of Congress website that annotates the United States Constitution.
Reddit users pointed out on Wednesday that the website omitted text from some sections of Article 1, which include provisions about the right of habeas corpus as well as limits on congressional and state power. Using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, people found that the full text appeared on the Library of Congress website on July 17 but was missing in snapshots after that date.
Some people mistakenly said President Donald Trump’s administration removed these provisions from the constitution entirely without Congress’s input.
“BREAKING: The official US government website has quietly removed Sections 9 and 10 of Article I from the Constitution,” one Threads post said on Wednesday. “Let me say that again: They didn’t amend the Constitution. They didn’t debate it in Congress. They just erased two of the most protective sections; the ones that deal with habeas corpus, limits on federal power, and Congress’s sole authority to set tariffs.”
