Library Of Congress Offers Shaky Excuse After Key Parts Of Constitution Suddenly Vanish From Website

After sections 9 and 10 of Article I of the U.S. Constitution mysteriously disappeared from a government website that offers an annotated online version to visitors, the Library of Congress wasn't convincing anyone when it claimed "data issues" as the culprit.

Over the past month, portions of Section 8 and all of Sections 9 and 10 were removed from Article I of the Constitution on the U.S. government’s official website. The changes to sections addressing congressional powers, states’ rights, and due process sparked concern amid threats from the Trump administration to suspend habeas corpus.

Screenshots below show the changes.

In simple terms, a writ of habeas corpus is a court order requiring authorities to bring a detained individual before a judge to justify their continued detention. In the federal system, judges often receive habeas petitions from state prisoners who claim their constitutional rights were violated during their prosecution or imprisonment.

In May, Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said the Trump administration is "actively looking at" suspending habeas corpus, telling reporters that the U.S. Constitution permits the suspension of habeas corpus in times of "rebellion or invasion."

The gravity of this latest development was succinctly explained by political analyst Brian Allen, who pointed out that "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" are now gone—without the Constitution having been amended or debated in Congress via the proper channels.

But the Library of Congress offered this shaky explanation in response to the criticism:

"It has been brought to our attention that some sections of Article 1 are missing from the Constitution Annotated (https://constitution.congress.gov) website. We’ve learned that this is due to a coding error. We have been working to correct this and expect it to be resolved soon."

It later claimed that the "missing sections" had "been restored" and that "Upkeep of Constitution Annotated and other digital resources is a critical part of the Library’s mission, and we appreciate the feedback that alerted us to the error and allowed us to fix it."

You can see the organization's post below.

But no one was buying the "official" explanation.

The so-called "coding error" comes just a few months after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was criticized for defending the Trump administration potentially suspending habeas corpus amid its crackdown on illegal immigration.

During a congressional hearing, Noem—who has a political science degree and absolutely knows what habeas corpus is—defined habeas corpus as "a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country."

Noem was challenged by New Hampshire Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan, who noted that without habeas corpus, "the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason," eliminating "the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea."