Opinion
No. 19-35382
05-13-2020
BILLY DEAN LYONS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. PACIFIC COUNTY CLERK; et al., Defendants-Appellees.
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
D.C. No. 3:19-cv-05059-RBL MEMORANDUM Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington
Ronald B. Leighton, District Judge, Presiding Before: BERZON, N.R. SMITH, and MILLER, Circuit Judges.
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
Billy Dean Lyons appeals pro se from the district court's judgment dismissing his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action challenging state court decisions arising out of reassignment of his case to a different judge. We review de novo a dismissal under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. Noel v. Hall, 341 F.3d 1148, 1154 (9th Cir. 2003). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We affirm.
The district court properly dismissed Lyons's action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine because it was a "de facto appeal" of prior state court decisions and raised claims that were "inextricably intertwined" with those decisions. See Noel, 341 F.3d at 1163-65.
The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Lyons's motion for recusal because Lyons presented no basis for recusal. See Glick v. Edwards, 803 F.3d 505, 508 (9th Cir. 2015) (setting forth standard of review and grounds for recusal); see also Liteky v. United States, 510 U.S. 540, 555 (1994) (explaining that "judicial rulings alone almost never constitute a valid basis for a bias or partiality motion").
We reject as meritless Lyons's contention regarding an undocketed motion for reconsideration of the district court's order denying his recusal motion.
We do not consider 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.
AFFIRMED.