The disappearance, which included the section guaranteeing habeas corpus, was first flagged by users and later confirmed by the Library of Congress.
WASHINGTON — A technical error on a government website briefly removed key sections of the U.S. Constitution, including the clause that guarantees the right to challenge unlawful detention.
As first reported by TechCrunch, portions of Article I of the Constitution disappeared in recent weeks from the Library of Congress’ Constitution Annotated website, including large parts of Section 8 and all of Sections 9 and 10.
Those sections outline congressional powers and limits, with Section 9 specifically stating, “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”
The change was noticed by online users and confirmed through the Wayback Machine, which showed the full text present on July 17 but missing in more recent snapshots.
The Library of Congress acknowledged the issue in a post on X, attributing it to a coding error. “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,” the Library wrote. A banner appeared on the site Wednesday afternoon, alerting visitors that it is “experiencing data issues.”
A few hours later, the Library of Congress issued another statement on X, announcing that the error had been resolved. “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,” the post said.
The missing sections drew conversation online due to the incident’s timing. The error came just months after senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller publicly floated suspending habeas corpus to support the administration’s immigration crackdown, describing it as an option the administration was “actively looking at.”
While the Constitution Annotated website is not the official legal record of the Constitution, it is maintained by the Congressional Research Service as a public resource explaining the nation’s founding document.
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