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Habeas Corpus and other provisions removed from official website of U.S. Constitution [1]

['Rob Beschizza']

Date: 2025-08-06  

Constitution.congress.gov is the U.S. Congress's official website presenting the Constitution of the United States of America. Visitors noticed this morning that passages from it were missing, as can be shown by comparison with snapshots of the page at the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Sections 9 and 10 are removed completely, as is much of Section 8.

The text removed is contiguous, suggesting a single act of deletion and therefore making it seem more likely to be the result of incompetence than intent. And the website is just that, a copy for public consumption. The U.S. constitution can only be changed by amendments proposed by Congress or a national convention and ratified by three-fourths of the states.

The provisions removed include topical live wires for the Trump Administration, though, such as Habeas Corpus, which requires the government to prove the legality of someone's imprisonment or detention. On the other hand, the deleted material includes things he likes, such as provisions for suppressing insurrection and providing resources to the military.

Section 9 includes Habeas Corpus and prohibitions against punishing individuals without trial, retroactively applying new laws, or appropriating public money without legal basis. It also prohibits titles of nobility and on government officials accepting gifts from foreign states. Section 10 prohibits states from issuing money or organizing their own armies. The portion removed from Section 8 authorizes congress to raise a navy, to suppress insurrections, and various other military things.

Hey, at least you know what the DOGE guys are working on this morning.

UPDATE:

UPDATE II: The Updatening

The "teaser" text on the website's homepage, usually used to highlight popular articles about the Consitution, has been replaced by a note disclaiming the removal as an error. The text appears to have been copied from a reply to media inquiries

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