Odonnell v. Salgado, 913 F.3d 479

A motions panel of the Fifth Circuit issued a published stay pending appeal opinion on August 14, 2018 (ODonnell v. Goodhart, 900 F.3d 220).
The original appellants who sought the stay lost their offices in the November 2018 elections and were replaced by successors.
The successors moved to voluntarily dismiss the appeal on January 7, 2019; the Clerk entered an order under Fed. R. App. P. 42(b) dismissing the appeal as of that date.
Appellees moved (unopposed) to vacate the August 14 published opinion, arguing the appeal’s dismissal and change in officeholders warranted vacatur.
The panel considered precedents on vacatur and mootness, including Karcher, Munsingwear, and U.S. Bancorp, and whether the published stay opinion should remain binding circuit precedent.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the published stay opinion should be vacated after appellants were succeeded and the successors dismissed the appeal	Vacatur appropriate because circumstances (change in officeholders and dismissal) made continued precedential effect improper	Opinion should remain because published precedent is presumptively valuable and dismissal was a strategic choice by successors	Denied vacatur; published opinion remains binding circuit precedent
Whether Munsingwear vacatur applies when successors decline to pursue an appeal	Munsingwear supports vacatur when an appeal becomes moot or unreviewable	Munsingwear inapplicable where successor officials could continue the appeal; dismissal was voluntary and attributable to a party	Munsingwear inapplicable; Karcher controls — automatic substitution prevents mootness absent party choice to end appeal
Whether a motions-panel opinion can be binding absent a merits panel	Motions-panel rulings are not inevitably binding on merits panels	A merits panel is not bound by motions panels, but here there will be no merits panel because appeal dismissed	Opinion stands as the court’s last statement and binds district courts in the circuit

ODonnell v. Goodhart, 900 F.3d 220 (5th Cir. 2018) (published stay opinion at issue)
U.S. Bancorp Mortg. Co. v. Bonner Mall P’ship, 513 U.S. 18 (1994) (vacatur permissible only in exceptional circumstances; precedents serve public interest)
Karcher v. May, 484 U.S. 72 (1987) (automatic substitution of public officers prevents mootness; Munsingwear inapplicable when successors could continue appeal)
United States v. Munsingwear, Inc., 340 U.S. 36 (1950) (established vacatur procedure when a case becomes moot through no fault of parties)
Trevino v. Davis, 861 F.3d 545 (5th Cir. 2017) (noting a merits panel is not bound by a motions panel)