this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2025
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Edit: as pointed out in a comment below, the official cause is coding error

Compare with the original, from a few weeks back

Half of section 8, governing Congressional power over the military is removed.

Section 9 had, among other things:

  • Habeas Corpus the right to get a court hearing instead of arbitrary imprisonment
  • a ban on foreign emoluments for the US officials (eg: payments from foreign governments)

Section 10 reserved foreign policy for the federal government instead of the states.

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[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 106 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Technically this should be removed as it's not a news article discussing the edit, but it's important enough that I'll leave it for now.

EDIT Story has now been picked up by Alternet:

https://www.alternet.org/trump-constitutional-crisis/

Edit 2 The missing sections are now restored.

Full text here:

https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/full-text

(Removed sections in bold)

Section 8: Powers of Congress

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards and other needful Buildings;-And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Section 9: Powers Denied Congress

The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.

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.

No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.

No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.

No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

Section 10: Powers Denied to the States

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.

No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

[–] baines@lemmy.cafe 172 points 5 days ago (8 children)

how is this not a bigger deal?

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 74 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Because we dont know for sure that its not some really dumb technical problem instead of yet another announcement of the intent to turn the US into a dictatorship.

[–] s@piefed.world 127 points 5 days ago

A fuckup that specifically in line with what the Führer wants is no accident

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 70 points 5 days ago (1 children)

What possible 'technical problem' could do this? It's not like the whole page has just gone offline. Specific sections of text are missing. And this is text that should never need updating.

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 28 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (7 children)

They're doing annotated sections. If the backend loads sections or parts of sections separately, a corrupt database might cause a problem like this. Also could load each article into a buffee...and article I was too long to fit, so it got truncated.

There is a lot more opportunity for technology to break in interesting ways than most people expect.

Its also sometimes helpful to give an adversary a face-saving way to back down, and a technical problem can be a way to do that.

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 39 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Section 8 stops at the same point on two independent pages. Is it possible they're both referencing the same source file? Maybe. But why would this ever get truncated? This isn't some dynamic page that will have to buffer blocks of text of unknown length. It just doesn't pass the smell test that the site suddenly can't display correctly a block of text that hasn't changed at all in over 200 years. And the sections that are deleted just happen to be those areas that Trump hates the most.

Regardless, we should screaming about this from the mountaintops. If there is one website on the federal government that you do not want to have displayed incorrectly, it's the fucking Constitution.

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[–] Rolder@reddthat.com 25 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

The way I see it, a technical problem isn’t impossible. But considering the sections removed and the general political climate, I’d call it extremely unlikely

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[–] MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 37 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

You can’t seriously be this naïve… I mean, c’mon now

[–] 3abas@lemmy.world 22 points 5 days ago (3 children)

What? What could possibly convince you this is a technical problem?

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[–] breecher@sh.itjust.works 40 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Put it in the pile of big deals.

[–] lectricleopard@lemmy.world 20 points 5 days ago

The gish gallop of fascist policies.

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[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 92 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I just threw that whole page into multiple archive sites, so when they revert it later and claim nothing happened, there's still a log.

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[–] Stimpy@lemmy.world 93 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Benjamin felt a nose nuzzling at his shoulder. He looked round. It was Clover. Her old eyes looked dimmer than ever. Without saying anything, she tugged gently at his mane and led him round to the end of the big barn, where the Seven Commandments were written. For a minute or two they stood gazing at the tatted wall with its white lettering.

"My sight is failing," she said finally. "Even when I was young I could not have read what was written there. But it appears to me that that wall looks different. Are the Seven Commandments the same as they used to be, Benjamin?"

For once Benjamin consented to break his rule, and he read out to her what was written on the wall. There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran:

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

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[–] kylie_kraft@lemmy.world 91 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It's just so fucking stupid and terrifying at the same time.

They don't got to burn the books, they just remove them.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 17 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

They don't care if the whole country screeches and rages about it, they only care about how people will have gotten used to it in ten years time. People adapt very fast to new normals, and that's their plan, to push a new normal on all of us so they can have their techno-feudalist empire with kings and barons sacking misbehaving states and other nations who have oil, because it's a lot more profitable to take someone's resources than try to maintain an equitable production and high-tech service economy like we all thought we were going to have.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 58 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (8 children)

With every month that passes, comes greater confirmation that investing in a firearm is the right call. That sucks, because training is expensive as heck on my budget. Hopefully, I won't have to use my shotgun.

Unfortunately, I have a feeling that blood will tell the direction that North America ultimately takes. The original Constitution was written in red, and I expect a renewed one to also drip with crimson.

[–] Bluewing@lemmy.world 28 points 4 days ago (7 children)

The tree of Liberty must refreshed with the blood of tyrants and patriots from time to time. I do agree with you. That time is perhaps drawing near.

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[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 72 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (8 children)

Holy shit, it’s indexed in search engines but 404s:

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/article-1/section-9/

Removed here too:

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/article-1/

Here are sections 9/10 on another government website, just to make sure I’m not crazy: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript#1-9

[–] wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 48 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Yeah that pretty much confirms it wasn't just a text based whoopsie. Which... there's no real reason to be modifying the contents of that page anyways. Even the browse article 1 section no longer has links to section 9 or 10.

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[–] londos@lemmy.world 67 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Is this getting media attention?

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 51 points 5 days ago (1 children)

So far as I'm aware, its circulating among environmental journalists, but not the broader press yet

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[–] wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I'm not seeing it anywhere. So I'm mass-texting people.

It wont be a big deal until people know. Start harassing your friends and family and get the word out.

[–] CMDR_Horn@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] scottrepreneur@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

Lemmy mentioned!

[–] gerowen@lemmy.world 35 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I just emailed 404 Media about this.

[–] Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 21 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I contacted my representatives. They'll make some noise, if nothing else.

[–] brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 4 days ago

Same. We'll see if they read my essay of a message.

[–] cAUzapNEAGLb@lemmy.world 20 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Update from the Library of Congress says they'll fix it and gave a weak excuse, for now they've added a banner to the website saying its not accurate

At least they are not doubling down

https://bsky.app/profile/librarycongress.bsky.social/post/3lvqilhwb6k2x

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[–] Sekoia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 30 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I think these are probably the main bits they wanted to remove (both Article I section 9):

  • 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.
  • No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
  • No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.

Pure speculation to be clear, but they removed only the end of section 8, and probably removed section 10 because it would have to be numbered differently. Habeas Corpus has been causing them trouble, they've been stealing money pretty blatantly already, and bill of attainder/ex post facto laws seem convenient to them.

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[–] wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 35 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 22 points 5 days ago
[–] ryokimball 33 points 5 days ago (2 children)

"What the founding fathers wanted."

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[–] Embargo@lemmy.zip 30 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

So individual states can now legally build armies and go to war with the backing of foreign powers? Am I reading this right?

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[–] PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works 20 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (10 children)

What is whatever this is, called? It’s not technically “amending”…has it ever been done before??

[–] 3abas@lemmy.world 37 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

This is classic Ministry Of Truth tactics, it goes under many names but always exists in authoritarian society, what you recall and what you know isn't relevant, what the state says is the truth is the only truth.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 23 points 4 days ago (2 children)

All they did is edit the copy on the Congressional website, it has no legal authority. The Constitution is still the Constitution.

The only way to make the change actually have merit is to either go through the Amendment process or have another Constitutional Convention and re-write the whole thing...

Which they ARE trying to do BTW:

https://conventionofstates.com/

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[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 21 points 5 days ago (2 children)

This needs to get posted at Reddit. I can't, I'm under a seven day ban.

There's one up that I see in white people twitter, but it has a stupid title.

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[–] wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 5 days ago (1 children)

OK that's a solid wtf. I bet even my raging originalist-boner friends and family are not cool with this.

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