UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

NINA RINGGOLD; et al., 

Plaintiffs-Appellants, 

 v. 

JERRY BROWN, in his Individual and 

Official Capacity as Governor of the State of 

California and in his Individual and Official 

Capacity as Former Attorney General of the 

State of California; et al., 

Defendants-Appellees.

No. 17-16269 

D.C. No. 2:12-cv-00717-JAM-JFM 

Eastern District of California, 

Sacramento 

ORDER

Before: SILVERMAN, GRABER, and GOULD, Circuit Judges.

The memorandum disposition filed October 29, 2018, is hereby amended. 

An amended disposition is filed concurrently with this order.

With these amendments, the panel has voted to deny the petition for panel 

rehearing. 

The full court has been advised of the petition for rehearing en banc and no 

judge has requested a vote on whether to rehear the matter en banc. See Fed. R. 

App. P. 35.

Appellants’ petition for panel rehearing and petition for rehearing en banc 

(Docket Entry No. 77) are denied. 

FILED

APR 30 2019

MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK

U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
2 17-16269 

Appellants’ request for judicial notice (Docket Entry No. 78) is denied.

No further filings will be entertained in this closed case.
NOT FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

NINA RINGGOLD; et al., 

Plaintiffs-Appellants, 

 v. 

JERRY BROWN, in his Individual and 

Official Capacity as Governor of the State of 

California and in his Individual and Official 

Capacity as Former Attorney General of the 

State of California; et al., 

Defendants-Appellees.

No. 17-16269 

D.C. No. 2:12-cv-00717-JAM-JFM 

AMENDED MEMORANDUM*

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Eastern District of California

John A. Mendez, District Judge, Presiding

Submitted October 22, 2018**

Before: SILVERMAN, GRABER, and GOULD, Circuit Judges.

Nina Ringgold, Justin Ringgold-Lockhart, and the Law Office of Nina 

Ringgold appeal from the district court’s order denying various post-judgment 

 

* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent 

except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.

** The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision 

without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).

FILED

APR 30 2019

MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK

U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
2 17-16269 

motions. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review for an abuse of 

discretion. Hamid v. Price Waterhouse, 51 F.3d 1411, 1415-16 (9th Cir. 1995). 

We may affirm the district court on any basis supported by the record. Moreno v. 

Baca, 431 F.3d 633, 638 (9th Cir. 2005). We affirm in part and vacate in part.

The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying plaintiffs’ motion 

for disqualification because plaintiffs failed to establish extrajudicial bias or 

prejudice. See 28 U.S.C. § 455 (listing circumstances requiring recusal); Clemens 

v. U.S. Dist. Court, 428 F.3d 1175, 1178 (9th Cir. 2005) (test for disqualification of 

judge under § 455(a)). Contrary to plaintiffs’ contention, the district court did not 

err by resolving the motion without an evidentiary hearing. See Fed. R. Civ. 

P. 78(b). We reject as without merit plaintiffs’ arguments that the district court 

erred by denying their request for “intercircuit assignment” under 28 U.S.C. § 292.

The district court did not err in denying plaintiffs’ motions for a three-judge 

panel. See 28 U.S.C. § 2284(a). We reject as without merit plaintiffs’ contention 

that the district court lacked jurisdiction because the action was subject to the 

jurisdiction of a three-judge court.

The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying plaintiffs’ motion 

for reconsideration and motion to vacate the judgment because plaintiffs failed to 
3 17-16269 

establish any basis for relief. See Sch. Dist. No. 1J, Multnomah Cty., Or. v. 

ACandS, Inc., 5 F.3d 1255, 1262-63 (9th Cir. 1993) (setting forth standard of 

review and grounds for reconsideration under Fed. R. Civ. P. 59(e) and 60). We 

reject as without merit plaintiffs’ contentions regarding the applicability of Fed. R. 

Civ. P. 52 and 54(b).

The district court did not abuse its discretion in taking judicial notice of the 

Central District of California’s pre-filing order against Nina Ringgold and Justin 

Ringgold-Lockhart because courts may take judicial notice of documents in the 

public record. See Lee v. City of Los Angeles, 250 F.3d 668, 689 (9th Cir. 2001) 

(setting forth standard of review).

The district court did not abuse its discretion in sanctioning Nina Ringgold 

and Justin Ringgold-Lockhart under Fed. R. Civ. P. 11 because the record supports 

the conclusion that Ringgold and Ringgold-Lockhart filed their First Amended 

Complaint for the improper purpose of circumventing the pre-filing order. See 

Fed. R. Civ. P. 11; Townsend v. Holman Consulting Corp., 929 F.2d 1358, 1361-

62, 65 (9th Cir. 1990) (en banc) (“A district court confronted with solid evidence 

of a pleading’s frivolousness may in circumstances that warrant it infer that it was 

filed for an improper purpose.”).
4 17-16269 

The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying plaintiffs’ crossmotion for sanctions because plaintiffs failed to establish grounds for sanctions. 

See Fed. R. Civ. P. 11(b); Christian v. Mattel, Inc., 286 F.3d 1118, 1126-27 (9th 

Cir. 2002) (describing grounds for Rule 11 sanctions).

The district court, however, abused its discretion in imposing a $1,000 

monetary sanction on Nina Ringgold because the record does not support the 

district court’s conclusion that Ringgold violated a court order in a manner 

tantamount to bad faith. See Fink v. Gomez, 239 F.3d 989, 991-94 (9th Cir. 2001) 

(“[T]he district court has the inherent authority to impose sanctions for bad faith, 

which includes a broad range of willful improper conduct.”). We vacate the 

$1,000 sanction against Nina Ringgold.

We do not consider arguments raised for the first time on appeal, or matters 

not specifically and distinctly raised and argued in the opening brief. See Padgett 

v. Wright, 587 F.3d 983, 985 n.2 (9th Cir. 2009).

All pending motions and requests are denied.

Appellants shall bear the costs on appeal.

AFFIRMED in part and VACATED in part.