Our Changing Constitution
557
derlying republican principle of the Constitution and the democratic foundation upon which it rests.
Examples of these substantive constitutional changes abound, and no
branch of the Federal government is entirely innocent of the charge of
over-reaching. Broad delegations of legislative power to executive agencies and independent regulatory commissions, as we previously saw, tend
to undermine the separation of powers and democratic accountability.
The unrestricted extension of the commerce clause into purely local affairs has changed ѡ