Task: songer_direct1

What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
Your task is to determine the ideological directionality of the court of appeals decision, coded as "liberal" or "conservative". Consider liberal in suits against management, for union, individual worker, or government in suit against management; in government enforcement of labor laws, for the federal government or the validity of federal regulations; in Executive branch vs union or workers, for executive branch; in worker vs union (non-civil rights), for union; in conflicts between rival union, for union which opposed by management and "not ascertained" if neither union supported by management or if unclear; in injured workers or consumers vs management, against management; in other labor issues, for economic underdog if no civil rights issue is present; for support of person claiming denial of civil rights. Consider the directionality to be "mixed" if the directionality of the decision was intermediate to the extremes defined above or if the decision was mixed (e.g., the conviction of defendant in a criminal trial was affirmed on one count but reversed on a second count or if the conviction was afirmed but the sentence was reduced). Consider "not ascertained" if the directionality could not be determined or if the outcome could not be classified according to any conventional outcome standards.

PER CURIAM.
This petition for review by five discharged employees whose complaint was dismissed by the National Labor Relations Board raises the single question of whether petitioners were supervisors, and hence not within the protection of the Act. The trial examiner, in a careful and detailed report, reached the conclusion that they were not supervisors. On review by a three-member panel two members, although in most respects adopting the subsidiary findings of the trial examiner, reached the opposite conclusion. Crimptex, Inc., 145 N.L.R.B. No. 50, December 16, 1963. One member would have accepted the trial examiner’s report in toto.
No purpose would be served by'our repeating the findings. As counsel for the Board candidly admits, the question is close. However, we have repeatedly stated that a broad discretion must be given to the Board on this issue. In this case we regard it as of considerable importance that if the petitioners were not supervisors the company’s employees were entirely without supervision a large part of the time. Cf. N. L. R. B. v. Supreme Dyeing and Finishing Corp., 1 Cir., 1965, 340 F.2d 493. In such circumstances it was not unreasonable to conclude that even the relatively small amount of supervisory power conferred upon and exercised by petitioners made them representatives of the employer.
Affirmed.

Question: What is the ideological directionality of the court of appeals decision?
A. conservative
B. liberal
C. mixed
D. not ascertained
Answer:

Answer: A