Library Of Congress Blames ‘Coding Error’ After Key Parts Of Constitution Wiped From Site

A number of key sections from Article I of the U.S. Constitution — including one tied to habeas corpus — recently vanished from a federal government website, as first reported by 404 Media and flagged by internet forums.

A large portion of Article I, Section 8 appeared to go missing while all of Sections 9 and 10 were absent from the annotated version of the document on constitution.congress.gov — which is run by the Library of Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office.

The disappearances were noticed in sections on the limits of federal and state powers as well as references to habeas corpus (the constitutional provision used to check the government’s power to detain people), the forbidden granting of nobility titles and federal officials being restricted from receiving foreign emoluments.

The Constitution hasn’t changed since 1992, either — which is reflected by a page on a separate site on the document run by the National Archives.

Later that same month, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem notably botched the definition of habeas corpus, claiming that it gave the president the ability to “remove people from this country” during a Senate testimony.

Leadership at the renowned research library has reportedly been in dispute since Trump ousted Carla Hayden — an Obama-appointed librarian of Congress who became the first Black person and woman to hold the post — back in May.

Robert Randolph Newlen would go on to take Hayden’s post following her ouster, telling staffers at the time that the library hadn’t “received direction from Congress” on how to proceed.