Task: songer_method

What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals. Your task is to determine the nature of the proceeding in the court of appeals for the case, that is, the legal history of the case, indicating whether there had been prior appellate court proceeding on the same case prior to the decision currently coded. Assume that the case had been decided by the panel for the first time if there was no indication to the contrary in the opinion. The opinion usually, but not always, explicitly indicates when a decision was made "en banc" (though the spelling of "en banc" varies). However, if more than 3 judges were listed as participating in the decision, code the decision as enbanc even if there was no explicit description of the proceeding as en banc.

PER CURIAM:
This ease was affirmed in open court. In order to afford our decision precedential value, however, and conclusively to resolve this issue within our circuit, we issue this brief per curiam. For the reasons stated by Chief Judge Kaufman in open court, we affirm on Judge Blumenfeld’s opinion below, 383 F.Supp. 174 (D.Conn.1974).
. Rule § 0.23 of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit provides in pertinent part:
Where a decision is rendered from the bench, the court may deliver a brief oral statement. . . . Since these statements do not constitute formal opinions of the court and are unreported and not'uniformly available to all parties, they shall not be cited or otherwise used in unrelated cases before this or any other court.
. The statement delivered from the bench was as follows:
We agree with Judge Blumenfeld that the Connecticut regulations conflict with the federal scheme for providing OASDI benefits. The federal statutes and regulations, taken in conjunction with Philpott v. Essex County Welfare Board, 409 U.S. 413, 93 S.Ct. 590, 34 L.Ed.2d 608 (1973), evidence a clear intention that OASDI funds be used for the beneficiary’s needs, as he or his representative payee may best determine. It would subvert this scheme to permit a state to automatically treat such benefits as available for the needs of a parent or of other children. We are buttressed in our opinion by the interpretive letter written by John Costa, the administrative official charged with interpreting the OASDI provisions, whose views are entitled to great weight. Accordingly, we affirm on Judge Blumenfeld’s opinion below.

Question: What is the nature of the proceeding in the court of appeals for this case?
A. decided by panel for first time (no indication of re-hearing or remand)
B. decided by panel after re-hearing (second time this case has been heard by this same panel)
C. decided by panel after remand from Supreme Court
D. decided by court en banc, after single panel decision
E. decided by court en banc, after multiple panel decisions
F. decided by court en banc, no prior panel decisions
G. decided by panel after remand to lower court
H. other
I. not ascertained
Answer:

Answer: A