Key sections of the US Constitution deleted from government’s website

Several sections of Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution appear to have been removed from the official U.S. government website, as pointed out by sleuths on the internet and as seen by TechCrunch. 

The changes were made in the past month, according to the Wayback Machine, which shows the full original text on Congress’ website as of July 17.

Several Reddit threads identified the changes in Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution: Large parts of Section 8 have been removed, and Sections 9 and 10 have been deleted altogether. In the screenshot below, you can see the archived version of the site on the Wayback Machine on the left, and the current site on the right — the text highlighted in yellow has been removed.

These sections largely relate to the powers that Congress has and does not have, as well as limitations on the powers of individual states. The removal includes sections relating to habeas corpus, the powers that protect citizens from unlawful detention. 

Some of the sections’ text appears to be missing, as indicated by a trailing semicolon at the end of Section 8, where text used to follow.

In a tweet posted on Wednesday, the Library of Congress said the sections were missing “due to a coding error” and expect it to be “resolved soon.” When contacted by TechCrunch, a spokesperson for the Library of Congress did not say what caused the coding error, or how it was introduced.

Changing the U.S. Constitution’s text on the website does not change or have any effect on U.S. law, but it nevertheless follows senior Trump administration official Stephen Miller’s threats earlier this year to suspend habeas corpus.

When reached by TechCrunch, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle declined to comment beyond the Library of Congress’ post.

Updated with more details from the Library of Congress, and with a response from the White House.