In review of judicial interpretation of the United States Constitution set against the current reality of American governance, the authors conclude that traditional separation of powers doctrines hold few constraints for delegation of “public functions” beyond the boundaries of the three branches. As the result of constitutional permissiveness, the legislative and executive departments have increasingly lost out (or abdicated) to private and quasi‐governmental institutions to conduct core government functions. Public accountability has been lost in this exchange. At a time of revolutionary change across Eastern Europe and elsewhere, when newly forming governments look to the United States for structural models, they are unlikely to be informed about the functional reality of American governance by either the written constitution or doctrines articulating the constit