Page:Moore v. Harper.pdf/49

Rh idea defies both common sense and civil procedure. A court simply does not go on enforcing an interlocutory injunction—and imposing contempt sanctions for disobedience—after reaching a final judgment dismissing every relevant claim for relief. Rather, the interlocutory injunction (like all interlocutory orders) merges into the final judgment fully “adjudicating all the claims and the rights and liabilities of all the parties” to the case. N. C. Rule Civ. Proc. 54(b) (emphasis added). “With the entry of [Harper III’s] final judgment, the life of [Harper I’s] injunction came to an end, and it no longer ha[s] a binding effect on any one.” Madison Square Garden Boxing, Inc. v. Shavers, 562 F. 2d 141, 144 (CA2 1977).

In any event, the majority’s analysis plainly does not turn on the belief that any defendant remains liable to potential contempt sanctions and jail time. Instead, its animating idea (uncritically borrowed from petitioners) is that Harper I’s “judgment” operated against the 2021 Act as a statute. The majority describes Harper I’s “judgment” interchangeably as “enjoining the use of the 2021 ma[p]” and “striking down the 2021 pla[n].”,. It then reasons that reversing that “judgment” would “negate the force of its order striking down the 2021 pla[n],” thus “alter[ing] the presently operative statutes of North Carolina” such that the 2021 Act would “again take effect.” (internal quotation marks omitted). The majority regards this aspect of Harper I’s “judgment” as entirely independent of Harper III’s final resolution of the claims in this case. See,. And it finds its theory “confirm[ed]” by a proviso in a remedial redistricting Act, passed immediately after Harper I, stating that the 2021 Act would “again become effective” if this Court reversed Harper I. (internal quotation marks omitted). In short, the “case or controversy” that the majority thinks is still before us has nothing to do with the parties’ rights and liabilities on the claims asserted in this action; rather, it is simply whether