When do your actions in the district court moot your appeal?

You learn something new every day. What I learned in this case is that an appeal can become moot if you take certain actions in the district court while the appeal is pending Too bad for plaintiff, as he raised an interesting civil rights issue relating to his religious freedom and jailhouse food practices.

The case is Tripathy v. McClowski, a summary order issued on June 9. Plaintiff is a Muslim who is incarcerated at Fishkill Correctional Facility. He originally sought injunctive relief in the district court to prevent the jail from requiring him from coming into close contact with beef products. That would mean plaintiff cannot eat food containing beef products that was cooked in the same kitchen, with the same utensils and cooks, as the religion-compliant food they were preparing for him. While the district court said plaintiff's religious freedom claim was likely to succeed on the merits, he still could not get an injunction because his proposed relief would dramatically restructure how the jail operates, affecting security, finances, and architecture. But the district court did order the state to confer with plaintiff on a viable remedy.

Plaintiff appealed that order, and also told the district court that he was unsatisfied with the outcome of the inmate-management conferences on food preparation, et al. 

That appeal will not be heard on the merits, however. Why? Because plaintiff next amended his complaint in April 2022 to request new injunctive relief. This maneuver moots his prior request for a preliminary injunction. Citing a Second Circuit case from 1977 as well as cases from the Seventh and Ninth Circuits, the Court of Appeals (Pooler, Sack and Park) notes that "an amended complaint ordinarily supersedes the original and renders it of no legal effect." While the new complaint seeks the same injunctive relief that he requests on appeal, since "the district court has not yet considered whether the newly requested injunctive relief is appropriate, . . . there is no decision for [plaintiff] to appeal at this time." Appeal is therefore dismissed.