Latest news with #ConstitutionAnnotated
New York Post
5 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Part of Constitution vanishes from government website due to ‘error'
The virtual Constitution got an unexpected amendment Wednesday. Portions of Article I, Section 8 and all of Section 9 and 10 vanished from the government's official Constitution Annotated website, a snafu the Library of Congress — which maintains the site — blamed on a 'coding error.' Those provisions of the founding document notably pertain to habeas corpus, protection against detention without due process; and the emoluments clause, which restricts government officials from receiving unsanctioned foreign gifts. The missing sections were back online as of 2 p.m. ET, the Library of Congress confirmed. 'Upkeep of Constitution Annotated and other digital resources is a critical part of the Library's mission, and we appreciate the feedback that alerted us to the error and allowed us to fix it,' a rep said in a statement. 3 The Constitution Annotated had key sections of the Constitution missing before the Library of Congress fixed the issue Wednesday. 3 The sections that vanished dealt with gifts from foreign countries and habeas corpus. jaflippo – It was not immediately clear what caused the 'coding error,' which appeared to have happened sometime after July 17, according to screen captures on Wayback Machine. Tech whizzes briefly tacked on a banner on the website that said, 'The Constitution Annotated website is currently experiencing data issues. We are working to resolve this issue and regret the inconvenience.' Liberal critics of President Trump have long highlighted Sections 8, 9 and 10 while attacking his policies of shipping migrants off to El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) prison complex and benefiting from gifts such as a jumbo jet from Qatar. The website features an annotations tool that lets users explore the historical meaning and legal implications of a given section. 3 Other government websites with the Constitution did not appear to be affected. Photography by Jack – Article I, Section 8 lays out Congress' authority to collect taxes, raise an army and navy, regulate commerce and establish a national currency. Section 9, which was wholly erased, dealt with habeas corpus and emoluments, while Section 10 imposes limits on states — such as preventing them from entering treaties with foreign nations and establishing their own currencies. Other federal websites hosting digital copies of the founding documents, such as the one run by the National Archives and Records Administration, appear to have been untouched. The National Archives Building in Washington, DC, houses the original copy of the Constitution as well as a copy of the Declaration of Independence and other venerated documents.
Engadget
5 days ago
- Politics
- Engadget
Sections on habeas corpus and nobility titles were temporarily removed from Congress' US Constitution website
Key sections of the US Constitution were temporarily removed from Congress' website. Provisions including habeas corpus (due process) and the prohibition of nobility titles (like, say, King) vanished from the digital version of the document. They've since been restored. 404 Media first reported on the edits after users on Lemmy forums spotted them. There are many ways to read a copy of the US Constitution. But the Library of Congress' online version is one of the easiest to find. Alongside its counterpart hosted by the National Archives, it's an official digital communication from the government. Those two websites also sit atop Google's search results for "US Constitution." So, when key sections vanish from the website, it's worth noting. And when they coincide with those that the Trump administration has said it wants to remove, it's a bit more eyebrow-raising. Portions of Section 8 of Article I, along with all of Sections 9 and 10 of Article I, were missing. "The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended" was part of that. Also gone was "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States." Ditto for the provision banning foreign emoluments for US officials. The Lemmy thread that first caught the changes includes the complete list of edits. The National Archives version wasn't edited. 404 Media notes that, before these edits, the website hadn't changed significantly since first being archived by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. (That archive goes back to 2019.) The US Constitution hasn't changed since 1992. The US Library of Congress' explanation on Bluesky. (Bluesky) The Library of Congress said it was a mistake. "It has been brought to our attention that some sections of Article 1 are missing from the Constitution Annotated ( website," the official account posted on Bluesky. "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." It was changed back sometime around 2PM ET on Wednesday. The Trump administration doesn't have official control over the Library of Congress, which runs the website. But in May, the president fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. (White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed she "did not fit the needs of the American people.") Trump then named Todd Blanche, one of his former defense lawyers, as acting Librarian of Congress. The Senate must confirm a permanent replacement. This isn't the first time official government websites have removed text that the Trump administration finds inconvenient. In March, The NY Times listed hundreds of words the administration removed from public-facing websites and other materials. They include terms like "activism," "disability," "equality," "female," "prejudice," "pollution," "racism," "sex," "transgender" and "women." ("Men" wasn't on the list of banned words.) Of course, deleting text from the website doesn't change the legally binding document. ("You realize that they still exist even if you don't post them, right?" Jehosaphat Q. Blatte snarked on Bluesky.) But given the current state of affairs, you may want to look elsewhere to bone up on your rights.
Axios
5 days ago
- Politics
- Axios
Library of Congress blames "coding error" for missing sections of online Constitution
The Library of Congress on Wednesday pointed to an unspecified "coding error" that led to key parts of the U.S. Constitution being deleted from the Constitution Annotated website. Why it matters: The missing sections included foundational provisions, such as the right to habeas corpus — which protects people from unlawful detention — and the foreign emoluments clause. Those constitutional principles have risen to the forefront of political and legal debate amid the president's immigration crackdown and foreign dealings. As of Wednesday afternoon, most of Article I Section 8 had been restored, but Sections 9 and 10 appeared to still be missing. Driving the news: As highlighted by tech news site TechCrunch, an archived version of the website shows that a chunk of Article I Section 8 was cut, in addition to the entirety of Sections 9 and 10 of Article I. According to captures from the Wayback Machine, those sections were present as recently as mid-July. What they're saying: " It has been brought to our attention that some sections of Article 1 are missing from the Constitution Annotated ...website," the Library of Congress said in a statement posted to social media. "We've learned that this is due to a coding error." A banner across the top of the site read, "The Constitution Annotated website is currently experiencing data issues. We are working to resolve this issue and regret the inconvenience." Links for certain provisions included in those sections, such as Section 9's text on ex post facto laws, directed to an error page that read "Page Not Found" with a portrait of George Washington. That page appears to have since been restored. The Library of Congress did not immediately respond to Axios' request for further information. Context: The text of Article I Section 8, which outlines congressional powers, trailed off after enumerating Congress' power to "To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years." Rather than continuing to the next line, "To provide and maintain a Navy;" the section ended abruptly on a semicolon. The Militia Clauses, among others that follow in Section 8, were also missing as of early Wednesday afternoon. Zoom out: Article I Section 9, which places limits on congressional power, and Section 10, which covers powers denied to the states, had also vanished. One critical clause of Section 9 is the right of habeas corpus, which reads, "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." Stephen Miller, the president's top policy adviser, said in May that the White House was exploring the option of suspending habeas corpus amid its fight against judges curtailing its deportation push. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem botched questions about the legal principle at a Senate hearing in May, falsely asserting habeas corpus gives the president a "constitutional right" to conduct deportations.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Govt. Website ‘Glitch' Removes Trump's Least Favorite Part of Constitution
Donald Trump is still trying to take over the Library of Congress — but the national library has already, apparently by accident, modified its online copy of the U.S. Constitution to remove the president's least favorite part: the provision that guarantees people's right to challenge their detention and demands the government justify their confinement. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has publicly floated the idea of suspending habeas corpus to aid the president's efforts to arrest and deport immigrants: 'The writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion, so that is an option we're actively looking at,' Miller said in May. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who's helping lead Trump's mass deportation campaign, tried to claim that month that habeas corpus is 'a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country' — which is effectively the opposite of what habeas corpus means. Earlier in the month, Trump was asked about due process, and whether as president he has an obligation to uphold the Constitution. 'I don't know,' he replied. Within the past few weeks, Section 9 from 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 Library of Congress' Constitution Annotated webpage. By Wednesday morning, officials in Trump's government were quietly telling staff that the deletions were the result of a technical 'glitch,' sources familiar with the matter say. As a result, personnel scrambled to fix the issue, figure out how exactly it happened, and also review other parts of the website to see if there were any other conspicuous deletions. Some federal staffers raised their eyebrows at the blame-a-glitch explanation, given the apparently coincidental nature of the deletions affecting sections of the Constitution that the second Trump administration is openly working so hard to shred. The Library of Congress posted on X Wednesday morning that the deletion was the result of a 'coding error.' 'It has been brought to our attention that some sections of Article 1 are missing from the Constitution Annotated website,' the library wrote. '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 website now has a banner stating: 'The Constitution Annotated website is currently experiencing data issues. We are working to resolve this issue and regret the inconvenience.' 'Funny coincidence,' one federal employee dealing with this situation tells Rolling Stone dryly. It should be noted that simply deleting sections of the U.S. Constitution on a webpage — for an institution that isn't even the official custodian of the Constitution — doesn't change American law. But no matter what the document does or doesn't say, the president and his senior appointees have made clear their intention to violate the Constitution as best they can. The modification to the Constitution website comes as Trump attempts to seize control of the Library of Congress — even though the agency is technically part of the legislative branch. It functions as Congress' research arm, while also maintaining the world's largest collection of books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and recordings. In May, Trump announced he was firing Carla Hayden, the librarian of Congress, before the end of her 10-year term, and he moved to replace her with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as Trump's personal attorney. After a judge refused to block Hayden's termination, she filed an appeal last week to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. More from Rolling Stone What's Going on With the Gerrymandering Chaos in Texas? 'Defending Paradise': Julia Louis-Dreyfus Takes on Big Oil in California How the Epstein Files Blew Up a Pro-Trump AI Bot Network on X Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump was convicted of 34 criminal counts a year ago. Can he pardon himself?
In the days leading up to the anniversary of his own criminal conviction, President Donald Trump issued a flurry of clemency acts. On May 30, 2024, a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, the first time a former president had ever been convicted of a crime. Prosecutors argued Trump disguised reimbursements for a $130,000 hush money payment for porn star Stormy Daniels as legal expenses ahead of the 2016 election. In January, Judge Juan Merchan issued an "unconditional discharge' sentence for Trump's conviction, meaning he received no prison time or probation. The other cases in which he was also indicted are not moving forward while he is in office. But back in the White House, Trump has used the presidential power of clemency to ease consequences for people convicted of tax evasion, murder and bribery, to name a few. But can Trump use his clemency power on himself? Trump pardons: Todd and Julie Chrisley, health care tax cheat, Jan. 6 rioters A president issuing a self-pardon would be unprecedented, so its legality is unclear. If he did try it, it would not apply to the hush money case. Presidential pardons only apply to federal cases, not state cases. The Constitution states the president "shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment." That text limits the pardoning power by excluding state criminal offenses and civil claims, according to the Constitution Annotated. More: Trump's latest wave of pardons includes rapper, GOP governor convicted of corruption Trump was convicted in a New York state case. The federal cases he was charged in, led by special counsel Jack Smith, were dismissed after Trump was elected to serve a second term. It is a longstanding policy at the Justice Department to prosecute a sitting president. In addition to those convicted in the Jan. 6 riots, Trump has granted clemency, including pardons and sentence commutations, to more than 45 people as of May 29. In his first term, he granted 238 clemency acts, according to Pew Research Center, which also found former President Joe Biden had granted more clemency acts than any other president on record with 4,245 acts. Some recent Trump pardons and sentence commutations that made headlines include: Paul Walczak, the son of a wealthy Republican donor who was convicted of tax evasion for siphoning more than $10.9 million in payroll taxes from the paychecks of doctors and nurses. He had been sentenced to 18 months in prison. Michele Fiore, a former Las Vegas City Councilwoman who was convicted of federal charity fraud after misusing donations for a planned police memorial. She had not been sentenced when she was pardoned. Scott Jenkins, a former Virginia sheriff convicted of bribery in what prosecutors called a "cash-for-badges scheme.' He was set to start a 10-year prison sentence on May 27, 2025. Todd and Julie Chrisley, reality TV stars convicted of conspiring to defraud community banks, defraud the IRS and commit tax evasion in 2022. Todd Chrisley had been sentenced to 12 years in prison and Julie had been sentenced to seven years in prison. Larry Hoover, a Chicago gang leader serving multiple life sentences for charges including murder, extortion and money laundering, had his federal sentence commuted. Hoover attracted celebrity attention in calls to be freed, including from rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. Hoover will remain behind bars to continue serving for state charges. Contributing: Jeffrey Meehan, Reno Gazette Journal; Hannah Phillips, Palm Beach Post; Bart Jansen, KiMi Robinson, Jay Stahl, Aysha Bagchi, Kathryn Palmer, USA TODAY; C.A. Bridges, USA TODAY Network Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at kcrowley@ Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @ This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Can Trump pardon himself? What to know on conviction anniversary
