In an upsetting bait and switch, large sections of the U.S. Constitution have gone missing from the federal government’s digital home. These changes, mostly limited to Article 1, went into effect last month. These new developments have sent shocks of fear among legal academia and conscientious citizens.
The adopted amendments include eliminating most of Section 8 of Article 1. Further, they’ve completely removed all of Sections 9 and 10. This unforeseen lack of basic legal text has led to widespread, well-deserved criticism of government-created resources. The Wayback Machine, a digital archive of web pages, captured the full unaltered original language. It first went live on Congress’ website on July 17th. We took the above screenshot from the site to illustrate the dramatic contrast between the previous version and this new, improved content. It is starkly obvious on the highlighted sections exactly what has been removed.
The Library of Congress has claimed responsibility for these omissions, citing a “coding error.” In a tweet responding to our reporting on the situation, they assured that action is being taken to fix the problem. We anticipate this to be fixed shortly,” the Library wrote.
This incident has garnered attention from various media outlets, including TechCrunch, which reported on the changes to the Constitution’s website. The White House posted some key developments to clarify the state of play. Through their work, they shine a spotlight on the importance of transparent public access to core governmental documents.
The timing of these deletions is deeply suspicious. Thousands more rely on those legal texts for their original research and civic education. The Constitution — and the principles it embodies — is supposed to be the bedrock of American democracy. Even inadvertent amendments can cause uncertainty in interpreting its terms.
The Wayback Machine has been an indispensable tool in this effort, helping users access archived versions of websites where harmful content has appeared. This powerful tool exposes the written word’s deadly charms. Even more than providing a guide for future efforts, it serves to illuminate the discrepancies that have developed on the existing site.