Alexander

MEMORANDUM *

Idaho Sporting Congress, Inc. and The Ecology Center (collectively “ISC”) appeal from the district court’s denial of their request for attorneys’ fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act (“EAJA”). We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm. Because the parties are familiar with the factual and procedural background, we need not detail it here. At issue is the district court’s denial of fees on the grounds that ISC’s out-of-state counsel was an inactive member of the Colorado bar during certain periods of the litigation and was not admitted pro hac vice during this litigation in federal district court in Idaho.

In September 1999, the Colorado Supreme Court issued an order granting ISC counsel’s request to be retroactively restored to active status from February 1999 onward. The district court erroneously found that the supreme court’s order was irrelevant. It is well settled that it is within the states’ exclusive province to license and regulate lawyers. See, e.g., Leis v. Flynt, 439 U.S. 438, 442 , 99 S.Ct. 698 , 58 L.Ed.2d 717 (1979) (“Since the founding of the Republic, the licensing and regulation of lawyers has been left exclusively to…