Constitutional Law
Parts of Constitution vexing White House go missing on Library of Congress website
Parts of an annotated U.S. Constitution went missing from the Library of Congress website, leading critics who noted the problem Wednesday to point out that some of the deletions dealt with issues of concern to the White House. (Photo from Shutterstock)
Parts of an annotated U.S. Constitution went missing from the Library of Congress website, leading critics who noted the problem Wednesday to point out that some of the deletions dealt with issues of concern to the White House.
The missing text, all from Article I, consisted of part of Section 8 along with the entirety of Sections 9 and 10, report Courthouse News Service, Above the Law, TechCrunch, Live Now Fox and the New York Post.
The Library of Congress attributed the problem to a coding error that happened when updating the website.
Article I, Section 9 deals in part with habeas corpus, which can be used by immigrants challenging their deportations. Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said in May habeas could be suspended because of an “invasion,” perhaps a reference to immigrants in the country illegally or those with gang ties.
Section 9 also bars office holders from accepting presents, emoluments, offices or titles from a foreign state. Some Democratic lawmakers had suggested that the gift of a luxury plane from Qatar could violate the clause.
President Donald Trump fired the librarian of Congress in May and replaced her with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is also Trump’s former personal lawyer.
TechCrunch asked for specifics on the coding error. The problem happened when updating the annotated Constitution to include the latest cases related to Sections 8 through 10 of Article I, according to Bill Ryan, the director of communications for the Library of Congress, who spoke with TechCrunch. During the update, an XML tag was inadvertently removed. XML is a commonly used markup language used by the Library of Congress to format its website, according to TechCrunch.
“This prevented publication of everything in Article I after the middle of Section 8,” Ryan said. “The problem has been corrected, and our updated constitutional analysis is now available. We are taking steps to prevent a recurrence in the future.”
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