"Glitch" Sparks Controversy by Deleting Constitutional Clause Opposed by Trump from Government Website

In an unexpected move, a sensitive portion of the electronic version of the United States Constitution disappeared from the Library of Congress website—the clause concerning Habeas Corpus. This deletion, later described as a technical glitch, temporarily removed the constitutional guarantee that grants individuals the right to challenge the legality of their detention, a part that former President Donald Trump has long opposed.

This incident comes in the context of controversial statements from Trump's allies. Stephen Miller, who held a senior position in the White House, previously suggested the possibility of suspending Habeas Corpus to facilitate the arrest and deportation of immigrants, stating: "Habeas Corpus can be suspended in times of invasion, and this is an option we are seriously considering."

In a related context, Kristi Noem, a prominent figure in Trump's mass deportation campaign, attempted to provide a misleading interpretation of Habeas Corpus, claiming it was "a constitutional right that the president has to remove people from this country," which completely contradicts the primary purpose of this legal clause.

Earlier this month, when Trump was asked about due process and whether he was bound to defend the Constitution, he replied: "I don't know."

In the past few weeks, Section 9 of Article 1 of the Constitution—which states: "The privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it"—disappeared from the "Annotated Constitution" page on the Library of Congress website.

Explanation of the "Technical Glitch"

By the morning after the incident, Trump administration officials quietly informed staff that the deletions were the result of a "glitch", according to informed sources. As a result, staff quickly moved to fix the issue, investigate its cause, and review other parts of the site to ensure no other deletions occurred.

The "glitch" explanation raised suspicions among some federal employees, given the convenient nature of this deletion which affected parts of the Constitution that a second Trump administration is striving to bypass. A federal employee familiar with the situation sarcastically commented to Rolling Stone: "What a funny coincidence."

The Library of Congress posted on "X" (formerly Twitter) an explanation that the deletion was due to a "coding error", writing: "It has come to our attention that some portions of Article 1 are missing from the Annotated Constitution website. We have learned this is due to a coding error. We are working to correct this and expect it to be resolved soon."

The website also added a banner stating: "The Annotated Constitution website is currently experiencing data issues. We are working to resolve this issue and apologize for the inconvenience."

By the afternoon, the deleted parts of the Constitution were restored to the webpage. The Library of Congress told Rolling Stone in an email: "Due to a technical error, some portions of Article 1 were temporarily missing on the Annotated Constitution website. This issue has been corrected, and the missing sections have been restored."

It is worth noting that merely deleting parts of the U.S. Constitution on a webpage – for an institution that is not the official custodian of the Constitution – does not change American law. But regardless of what the document says, the President and his top aides have made clear their intention to bypass the Constitution as much as they can.

This alteration on the Constitution website comes as Trump attempts to control the Library of Congress – although the agency technically reports to the legislative branch. The Library serves as the research arm of Congress, in addition to holding the world's largest collection of books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and recordings.

In May, Trump announced he would remove Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, before the end of her 10-year term, and appointed Todd Blanche, who previously served as Trump's personal lawyer, in her place.

After a judge refused to block Hayden's removal, she filed an appeal last week with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Judicial Appeal to End Hayden's Service

UPDATE: This article has been updated to include a comment from the Library of Congress and to note that the apparent technical error has been fixed.