Mitchell Epner
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mitchellepner.bsky.social
Mitchell Epner
@mitchellepner.bsky.social
32K followers 1.9K following 16K posts
Attorney, former AUSA, father, husband, former JBLC, long-time Knicks fan and occasional talking head
https://mitchellepner.substack.com/
https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/mitchell-epner
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mitchellepner.bsky.social
Dutchess County.

The view from my new front porch.
Red barn with silo in background. Country road in midground. White column supporting porch overhang in near ground.
November 2, 2025 at 7:02 PM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
We are in the middle of a move, north from 30 years in Manhattan. It will be a long commute, but this will be the view from new front porch.
Red barn with silo, across the street, in a bucolic setting.
October 26, 2025 at 9:41 AM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
The view from the front porch of my new home.
red barn & silo.
October 23, 2025 at 12:40 AM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
Once RCV was finalized, Mamdani beat Cuomo by 12% and over 110k votes.

This was a drubbing.
Results of 2025 NYC Democratic Mayoral Primary
July 1, 2025 at 5:29 PM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
I have been a Democratic activist since 1980 (when I was 10). I have NEVER seen a voting demographic breakdown look like this. Until now, the 18-24 cohort was always the smallest segment of the population of actual voters.

The youth vote (18-30) swamped retirees (65+)

Paradigm shifting result!
2025 NYC mayoral primary demographic bar chart.
June 30, 2025 at 2:04 AM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
My wife and daughter joined tens of thousands in the No Kings protest today in New York.
No Kings March, carrying “No More Kings” Schoolhouse Rock sign
June 15, 2025 at 1:55 AM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
2/ . . . whether there has been a predicate threat to justify federalizing the National Guard. Screen shot of the nut graf is below.

California's moving papers do not address Martin v. Mott at all, let alone this passage. Unless CA has a good rejoinder, I do not see how the court can . . .
"We are all of the opinion that the authority to decide whether the exigency has arisen belongs exclusively to the President, and that his decision is conclusive on all other persons."
June 11, 2025 at 7:56 PM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
Screenshots of portion of Judge Liman's opinion denying leave to amend with regard to the major claims, while allowing Baldoni to amend other claims (tortious interference, etc.): "The Court will not grant leave to amend the majority of the Wayfarer Parties’ claims because amendment would be futile"
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June 10, 2025 at 6:21 PM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
It is official. Johns Hopkins University has conferred a BA (with honors) in Writing Seminars on Madison @madepn.bsky.social.

We are so proud of you for existing. Your accomplishments are astounding.
Madison on Homewood Field in cap & gown. Madison on Homewood Field in cap & gown. Madison on Homewood Field in cap & gown. Madison on Homewood Field in cap & gown.
May 22, 2025 at 6:19 PM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
1. I am proud of my daughter for existing, not for her accomplishments.

2. This is a big week for accomplishments on her part, as she graduates from Johns Hopkins University on Thursday.

3. Right now, we are in the audience for her induction ceremony to Phi Beta Kappa.
Phi Beta Kappa program List of inductees.
May 20, 2025 at 1:51 PM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
Share a bad guy from the ‘80s!

[Mike drop]
Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber in Die Hard. $5,000 suit and folded arms.
April 28, 2025 at 2:17 AM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
Madison introduces the show.
Madison on stage in jeans & flannel.
April 27, 2025 at 1:13 AM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
At Johns Hopkins tonight for my daughter’s final Spring Show. She is Executive Producer of the whole thing, as well as author of one scene.
Witness Theater cover art: Spring Show 2025. Players.
April 27, 2025 at 12:03 AM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
George W. Bush’s nadir was 25%.
George W. Bush poll numbers bottom out at 25%.
April 24, 2025 at 12:31 AM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
I saw Picasso’s Guernica when I was in elementary school.
Guernica
April 19, 2025 at 6:25 PM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
Repost the first album you bought with your own money.
The Kinks: Give The People What They Want album cover. Ray Davies in sunglasses running past graffiti reading "Give the people what they want".
April 17, 2025 at 10:39 PM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
7/ Judge Wilkinson concludes with a call for the Trump Administration to respect the rule of law:
It is in this atmosphere that we are reminded of President Eisenhower’s sage example. Putting his “personal opinions” aside, President Eisenhower honored his “inescapable” duty to enforce the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education II to desegregate schools “with all deliberate speed.” Address by the President of the United States, Delivered from his Office at the White House 1-2 (Sept. 24, 1957); 349 U.S. 294, 301 (1955). This great man expressed his unflagging belief that “[t]he very basis of our individual rights and freedoms is the certainty that the President and the Executive Branch of Government will support and [e]nsure the carrying out of the decisions of the Federal Courts.” Id. at 3. Indeed, in our late Executive’s own words, “[u]nless the President did so, anarchy would result.” Id. Now the branches come too close to grinding irrevocably against one another in a conflict that promises to diminish both. This is a losing proposition all around. The Judiciary will lose much from the constant intimations of its illegitimacy, to which by dent of custom and detachment we can only sparingly reply. The Executive will lose much from a public perception of its lawlessness and all of its attendant contagions. The Executive may succeed for a time in weakening the courts, but over time history will script the tragic gap between what was and all that might have been, and law in time will sign its epitaph. It is, as we have noted, all too possible to see in this case an incipient crisis, but it may present an opportunity as well. We yet cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos. This case presents their unique chance to vindicate that value and to summon the best that is within us while there is still time.
April 17, 2025 at 10:14 PM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
6/ Judge Wilkinson lays out the stakes if Trump is allowed to ignore the order to "facilitate" the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia.
The Executive possesses enormous powers to prosecute and to deport, but with powers come restraints. If today the Executive claims the right to deport without due process and in disregard of court orders, what assurance will there be tomorrow that it will not deport American citizens and then disclaim responsibility to bring them home?∗ And what assurance shall there be that the Executive will not train its broad discretionary powers upon its political enemies? The threat, even if not the actuality, would always be present, and the Executive’s obligation to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed” would lose its meaning. U.S. CONST. art. II, § 3; see also id. art. II, § 1, cl. 8.
April 17, 2025 at 10:14 PM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
5/ Judge Wilkinson's rejection of the Trump Administration's narrow interpretation of "facilitation" speaks truth to power:
. It would reduce the rule of law to lawlessness and tarnish the very values for which Americans of diverse views and persuasions have always stood.
April 17, 2025 at 10:14 PM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
4/ Judge Wilkinson forcefully rejects the Trump Administration's contention that it does not need to do anything to "facilitate" the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia, other than "remove domestic barriers":
The Supreme Court’s decision does not, however, allow the government to do essentially nothing. It requires the government “to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.” Abrego Garcia, supra, slip op. at 2. “Facilitate” is an active verb. It requires that steps be taken as the Supreme Court has made perfectly clear. See Abrego Garcia, supra, slip op. at 2 (“[T]he Government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.”). The plain and active meaning of the word cannot be diluted by its constriction, as the government would have it, to a narrow term of art. We are not bound in this context by a definition crafted by an administrative agency and contained in a mere policy directive. Cf. Loper Bright Enters. v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. 369, 400 (2024); Christensen v. Harris Cnty., 529 U.S. 576, 587 (2000). Thus, the government’s argument that all it must do is “remove any domestic barriers to [Abrego Garcia’s] return,” Mot. for Stay at 2, is not well taken in light of the Supreme Court’s command that the government facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador.
April 17, 2025 at 10:14 PM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
3/ Judge Wilkinson explains that the Trump Administration's incantation that Mr. Abrego Gracia is a "terrorist and a member of MS-13" does not justify the failure to accord him "due process" in considering those accusations.
The government asserts that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist and a member of MS-13. Perhaps, but perhaps not. Regardless, he is still entitled to due process. If the government is confident of its position, it should be assured that position will prevail in proceedings to terminate the withholding of removal order. See 8 C.F.R. § 208.24(f) (requiring that the government prove “by a preponderance of evidence” that the alien is no longer entitled to a withholding of removal). Moreover, the government has conceded that Abrego Garcia was wrongly or “mistakenly” deported. Why then should it not make what was wrong, right?
April 17, 2025 at 10:14 PM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
2/ return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia after he was wrongfully deported to El Salvador. I am going to post screen shots of the most trenchant portions of the opinion. Remember, Judge Wilkinson is as "conservative" as they come:
It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is not hard at all. The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.
April 17, 2025 at 10:14 PM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
The Supreme Court, without noted dissent, entered an order that largely affirms the District Court's order requiring the US to "facilitate" the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia to the US for the rest of his immigration process.

Nut graf below.

www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
The application is granted in part and denied in part, subject to the direction of this order. Due to the administrative stay issued by THE CHIEF JUSTICE, the deadline imposed by the District Court has now passed. To that extent, the Government’s emergency application is effectively granted in part and the deadline in the challenged order is no longer effective. The rest of the District Court’s order remains in effect but requires clarification on remand. The order properly requires the Government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador. The intended scope of the term “effectuate” in the District Court’s order is, however, unclear, and may exceed the District Court’s authority. The District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs. For its part, the Government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps. The order heretofore entered by THE CHIEF JUSTICE is vacated.
April 10, 2025 at 10:55 PM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
Here is the core of the decision:
This position is as striking as it is sweeping. The full contours of the position would permit the United States, at its discretion and without judicial review, to arrest a citizen of the United States and transfer her to the custody of allies overseas in order to avoid constitutional scrutiny; to arrest a citizen of the United States through the intermediary of a foreign ally and ask the ally to hold the citizen at a foreign location indefinitely at the direction of the United States; or even to deliver American citizens to foreign governments to obtain information through the use of torture.[7] In short, the United States is in effect arguing for nothing less than the unreviewable power to separate an American citizen from the most fundamental of his constitutional rights merely by choosing where he will be detained or who will detain him. This Court simply cannot agree that under our constitutional system of government the executive retains such power free from judicial scrutiny when the fundamental rights of citizens have allegedly been violated. As the Supreme Court stated in Reid v. Covert, 354 U.S. 1, 6, 77 S.Ct. 1222, 1 L.Ed.2d 1148 (1957), "we reject the idea that when the United States acts against citizens abroad it can do so free of the Bill of Rights.... When the Government reaches out to punish a citizen who is abroad, the shield which the Bill of Rights 41*41 and other parts of the Constitution provide to protect his life and liberty should not be stripped away just because he happens to be in another land."
April 4, 2025 at 11:05 PM
mitchellepner.bsky.social
3/ . . . he might be more beholden to the demands of the federal government than to the wishes of his own constituents."

In rejecting the arguments that he refuse to dismiss the case at all, Judge Ho rips into the good faith of the DOJ:
Quotes from opinion. "Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the Indictment in exchange for policy concessions." Quotes from opinion
April 2, 2025 at 3:08 PM