Key sections of the US Constitution that had disappeared from the government’s official website were restored Wednesday after the Library of Congress attributed their removal to a “coding error.”
Article I, Sections 9 and 10, along with portions of Section 8, had been missing from the Constitution Annotated website operated by the Library of Congress. The missing text included fundamental protections such as the writ of habeas corpus and prohibitions on bills of attainder.
“It has been brought to our attention that some sections of Article 1 are missing from the Constitution Annotated website,” the Library of Congress said in a social media statement. “We’ve learned that this is due to a coding error.”
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The sections were restored around 2 p.m. ET Wednesday after Reddit users first noticed the missing content and the issue was subsequently reported by TechCrunch.
Internet Archive records showed the constitutional text was present as recently as July 17 but had vanished by early August. Among the missing provisions was the habeas corpus clause, which reads: “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.”
Section 9 also includes prohibitions on Congress passing bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, and granting titles of nobility. Section 10 outlines restrictions on state powers, including prohibitions on entering treaties or maintaining armies without congressional consent.
While the Constitution Annotated website serves as a public educational resource maintained by the Congressional Research Service, it is not the official legal record of the Constitution. The complete text remains available through other government sources, including the National Archives.
A banner displayed across the website during the outage read: “The Constitution Annotated website is currently experiencing data issues. We are working to resolve this issue and regret the inconvenience.”
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