The Library of Congress confirmed that some portions of the U.S. Constitution were removed from the official government website.
Drop Site reported Wednesday morning that Sections 9 and 10 of Article I, which focuses on limiting the power of the legislative branch, were taken down without explanation from the official U.S. Constitution website.
“These sections ban ex post facto laws, bills of attainder, and unauthorized state treaties — core constitutional safeguards,” Drop Site noted.
The news outlet posted links to the official government website and an archived version to show the discrepancy, but the Library of Congress provided an update about a half hour later.
“It has been brought to our attention that some sections of Article 1 are missing from the Constitution Annotated website,” stated the library’s official X account. “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 missing sections prompted some mordant jokes about the state of constitutional rights.
“It’s good to know that it’s this easy to change the Constitution,” said podcaster Will Menaker.
“I almost didn’t believe it,” posted law professor Anthony Michael Kreis. “Do I have to teach Art. I Sec. 9 and Sec. 10 now now that they’re removed from the congressional website?”