Why parts of the Constitution went missing from US government website

Trump official talks suspending habeas corpus

President Trump’s top policy advisor, Stephen Miller said outside the White House on Friday that the Trump administration was “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus, the constitutional right for people to legally challenge their detention by the government. This would serve as a way for the administration to expand its legal power to deport people who are in the US illegally.

Key sections of the U.S. Constitution went missing from the Library of Congress’ Constitution Annotated website, but they were quickly restored by Wednesday afternoon after public outcry. 

The Library of Congress, which maintains the website, blamed the missing text on a "coding error." Critics, however, were quick to point out that the missing sections happen to be the constitutional clauses President Donald Trump has targeted since taking office for a second term. 

Constitution ‘coding error’

The missing sections included part of Article I Section 8, and all of Sections 9 and 10 of Article I, according to TechCrunch.

What they're saying:

"It has been brought to our attention that some sections of Article 1 are missing from the Constitution Annotated (constitution.congress.gov) website," the Library of Congress said on the Blusky social media site. "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."

A close up of the First Printing of the Final Text of the United States Constitution is on display during a press preview at Sotheby's on September 17, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

By Wednesday afternoon, the text had been restored, but archived versions show the sections were missing as early as mid-July. 

The other side:

Critics say it was no coincidence that the missing clauses were the ones President Trump has tested in his second term, including habeas corpus and foreign emoluments. 

Habeas corpus protects people from unlawful detention, while the foreign emoluments clause prohibits presidents from accepting gifts from foreign leaders. 

Stephen Miller, Trump’s top policy adviser, has previously floated the idea of suspending habeas corpus to accelerate mass deportations. Only Congress – not the president – has the power to suspend it, and only in cases of rebellion or invasion. 

RELATED: What is ‘habeas corpus’ and why might the Trump administration suspend it?

In May, President Trump said he would accept a $400 million jet from the Qatari government, which was widely seen as a potential violation of the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause. The jet will be retrofitted for security purposes and used as Air Force One while Trump remains in office. After he leaves office, the plane’s ownership will be transferred to Trump’s presidential library foundation. 

Pentagon accepts Qatari jet to use as Air Force One

National security analyst Hal Kempfer joins LiveNOW's Andrew Craft to discuss the Pentagon's acceptance of a luxury jet from Qatar.

By the numbers:

Officials won’t say how much the U.S. government is paying to retrofit the jet, but some lawmakers say it could be as much as $1 billion.

Dig deeper:

Online sleuths also questioned how the text could suddenly disappear from the website: it's essentially a text page showing a document that hasn’t been amended since 1992. The Library of Congress offered the following explanation: 

"We regret the confusion resulting from the missing content on the Constitution Annotated today," a Library of Congress spokesperson told 404 Media. "It’s been our priority today to re-publish the content and determine what happened. The online Constitution Annotated is an educational tool which includes discussions of the Supreme Court’s latest opinions linked to the text of the constitution. When updating the site to reflect our constitutional scholars’ analysis of the impact of the latest cases on Article I, Sections 8-10, the team inadvertently removed an XML tag. This prevented publication of everything in Article I after the middle of Section 8. The problem has been corrected and our updated constitutional analysis is now available. We are taking steps to prevent a recurrence in the future."