There's a typo in the United States Constitution

[xiphias]

Really.

Article I, Section 10 includes the phrase "except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws". The superfluous apostrophe appears in both the handwritten and early printed texts.

How embarrassing.

Comments

[mattblum.livejournal.com]

If the Constitution were written today, that would be a typo. In 1789, it wasn't. Until sometime in the 19th century, "it's" was the possessive form, because "'tis" was still in common usage as a contraction of "it is."

Read more here.

[ailbhe]

It wasn't an obsolete spelling of the possessive until the late 19th century. Me and my OED looked this up for a persistent offender some years ago.

It's sad that they weren't consistent, but not unusual.