Tag: Library of Congress

Trump is literally erasing the Constitution

We first became aware of this via a TikTok from ThePeopleUS, who documented their multiple phone calls to the Library of Congress, whose ConstitutionAnnotated website shows the Constitution without Article 1, Sections 9 and 10.

ThePeopleUS was told by the person who answered the phone at the LOC’s main reading room that this was the result of a “coding error”.

If you go to the National Constitution Center and read its faithful documentation of the Constitution, you can see the text of these erased sections:

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.

The first item is a revolting protection of the “slave trade”, which Congress was protecting.

The next two are key:

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.

—The U.S. government is currently violating this section of the Constitution. What “habeas corpus”, as it is commonly abbreviated, means is no person can be sentenced to prison or any other type of detention without a court ensuring that the detention is legal. This article of the Constitution protects Americans against unlawful imprisonment and allows anyone detained by the government to challenge their detention in court.

With the federal government currently rounding people up and putting them in concentration camps here and in other countries without trial and without proof that their imprisonment is legal, we currently have no habeas corpus protections in this country anymore. The Trump administration has erased this section of the Constitution to make that permanent.

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

—The U.S. government is currently violating this section of the Constitution. A Bill of Attainder is a piece of legislation that declares a person or group guilty of a crime and sentences them to punishment–all without a trial. This is a centuries-old weapon of dictatorship. And the federal government is currently using it without any effective resistance from members of Congress.

And now the last:

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.

—The U.S. government is allowing the Trump administration to prepare to violate this by prepping us for a third presidential term for Trump. He will become our King. Likely with the consent of Congress. And he has accepted many presents from foreign states, including his new AirForce One jet from Qatar.

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.

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.

–This ties into Section 9, by reiterating that, like the federal government, the states can’t create a King or suspend habeas corpus either.

Here’s what Snopes reported on August 6:

In a post to X (archived) on Aug. 6, 2025, the Library of Congress explained that it was aware some sections of Article 1 were missing from the Constitution’s text on its site. It said this was “due to a coding error” and that it expected the issue to be resolved soon. There was also a disclaimer at the top of the website on Aug. 6, 2025, that read, “The Constitution Annotated website is currently experiencing data issues. We are working to resolve this issue and regret the inconvenience.”

The Library of Congress did not respond to a Snopes request for more information on why that portion of the Constitution was missing from on the website. However, the full text of the Constitution is also available on the National Archives’ website. That version of the text was not missing any sections from the Constitution on Aug. 6, 2025.

Did you read through the sections above in full, or just look at what was highlighted in bold? The government is counting on Americans’ complete ignorance of what is in the Constitution.

They’re counting on a mind-bending contradiction wherein people claim the government must follow the Constitution to the letter, and never interpret it, and so we should reinstitute slavery, because the Constitution is our sacred white nationalist founding document AND that the Constitution can be re-written whenever Republicans want to to say whatever they want.

Heartfelt thanks to everyone, like ThePeopleUS, who realized this fascist coup move and brought it to public awareness. The majority of Americans will either not care or actively support this. It’s up to the minority to push back.

“Hearing Harriet Smith”: a new take on WPA recordings of people born into slavery

Most American know about the FWP interviewers who, in the 1930s, went into southern states and recorded the stories of black Americans who had been born into slavery. The FWP (Federal Writers’ Project) wanted to capture their stories as living history. About 2,300 people were interviewed before the FWP project expired, but the project was continued by the Library of Congress and the Julius Rosenwald Foundation into the 1940s in an attempt to find every living witness to and survivor of slavery in the United States.

Most of us who encounter these interviews read them as transcripts, usually heavily edited from hour-long conversations to just those stories of slavery that really bring its horror most vividly to life. We don’t even notice how they are written in “black dialect” (we all remember reading Huckleberry Finn), and we don’t think too much about the lives of the interviewees as they were in the 1930s and 40s when they were recorded—we assume their lives are much better.

But there’s a great article that goes in-depth into the socio-political context of the interviews, the backgrounds of the white interviewers and the pressures on the black interviewees: Hearing Harriet Smith focuses on one interviewer, John Henry Faulk, and one interviewee, Harriet Smith, to go behind the scenes and shed some light on some troubling questions that linger over the interviews.

—How did the black interviewees perceive the process? Did they feel like they were expected to tell certain types of stories and omit others?

—Why did so many black subjects talk about how wonderful slavery had been?

—Who were the interviewers? What drove them to participate in this project?

—Why was “black dialect” used so insistently by interviewers writing the transcriptions? Why didn’t they ever use standard English? (One of the answers will surprise you.)

—What errors crept into the transcripts, which were supposed to be primary resource historical artifacts, and why?

—What stories were left out of the transcripts, and why?

The site has many links out to the actual recordings so you can listen for yourself. It’s worth it to hear Harriet Smith rather than read her.