A software issue on Congress.gov led to portions of the U.S. Constitution disappearing from the site — including critical civil rights amendments — before technicians restored the content within hours.
Users and legal professionals noticed that large segments of constitutional amendments were missing from the Constitution Annotated section of Congress.gov. The disappearance included full content for foundational civil rights protections, triggering immediate concern over the integrity of government-managed digital archives.
The Library of Congress, which manages Congress.gov, confirmed this was not a cyberattack or intentional removal. Instead, it resulted from a software publishing error during routine updates to site architecture. Critical legal text was not deleted — it became temporarily invisible due to a deployment glitch.
Missing Content Included Key Constitutional Protections and Limits
The affected sections included:
- Abolition of slavery (13th Amendment),
- Equal protection and due process (14th Amendment),
- Voting rights regardless of race (15th Amendment).
The disappearance also removed important clauses from Article I, such as:
- Congress’s power to raise a navy,
- Habeas corpus protections,
- Prohibition of bills of attainder,
- Restrictions on state power,
- Slave trade clause until 1808.
Technical teams identified and reversed the flawed update within hours, restoring all missing constitutional text. Congressional IT staff emphasized that no content was permanently lost and other legislative archives were unaffected.
Though brief, the incident sparked widespread concern over the vulnerability of digital infrastructure displaying the U.S. Constitution. Legal scholars warned that even temporary loss of access to civil rights provisions undermines public trust and civic literacy.
Historicians, lawmakers, and civic groups are urging the Library to implement stronger safeguards:
- Pre-deployment content validation,
- Automated anomaly detection,
- Redundant hosting for high-priority legal content,
- Real-time monitoring for unexpected omissions.
