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 to be  for the defendant. 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:
In its consideration of this state prisoner’s habeas petition, the district court neither held an evidentiary hearing nor had before it the record of petitioner’s trial, or at least the state record was not introduced into evidence. That court has thus failed to conduct its required independent inquiry into the petitioner’s constitutional claims. See Townsend v. Sain, 1963, 372 U.S. 293, 83 S.Ct. 745, 9 L.Ed.2d 770. Its judgment is therefore vacated and the case is remanded for further consideration.
. The matter was handled by a magistrate whose findings, conclusions and recommendation were adopted by the district court. The clerk of the district court has advised this court that all state court materials filed as exhibits in district court were transmitted to this court. The state trial record is not among these exhibits.

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

Answer: B