Arvind Vyas Gopal v. Johnson, et al.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 9 10 ARVIND VYAS GOPAL, No. 2:25-cv-1372 DAD CKD P 11 Plaintiff, 12 v. ORDER 13 JOHNSON, et al., 14 Defendants. 15 16 Plaintiff is a state prisoner proceeding without counsel under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiff 17 requests that the court appoint counsel. District courts lack authority to require counsel to 18 represent indigent prisoners in section 1983 cases. Mallard v. United States Dist. Court, 490 U.S. 19 296, 298 (1989). In exceptional circumstances, the court may request an attorney to voluntarily 20 represent such a plaintiff. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(1); Terrell v. Brewer, 935 F.2d 1015, 1017 21 (9th Cir. 1991); Wood v. Housewright, 900 F.2d 1332, 1335-36 (9th Cir. 1990). When 22 determining whether “exceptional circumstances” exist, the court must consider plaintiff’s 23 likelihood of success on the merits as well as the ability of the plaintiff to articulate his claims pro 24 se in light of the complexity of the legal issues involved. Palmer v. Valdez, 560…