CID Enterprises, Inc. v. Wallowa Forest Products, LLC

MEMORANDUM **

Plaintiffs, Cynthia Barnedt and CID Enterprises, challenge, under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 , a decision by Wallowa Forest Products, a lumber company, to award a logging contract for work on the Yakama reservation to a Yakama-owned business, pursuant to tribal law. The district court held that plaintiffs’ claims failed under § 1981 because that section does not cover discrimination based on national origin. On reconsideration, the district court rejected plaintiffs’ arguments that they were discriminated against based on race, ethnicity, or ancestry, concluding that the arguments were untimely and failed on the merits. The district court also rejected defendant’s request for attorney fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988 . We affirm.

The district court correctly held that 42 U.S.C. § 1981 does not prohibit national origin discrimination. See Saint Francis College v. Al-Khazraji, 481 U.S. 604, 613 , 107 S.Ct. 2022 , 95 L.Ed.2d 582 (1987); Pavon v. Swift Transp. Co., Inc., 192 F.3d 902, 908 (9th Cir.1999). Moreover, the district court did not abuse its discretion in declining to consider plaintiffs’ new arguments, raised for the first time in a motion for reconsideration, that the…