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 government tax claim; for person claiming patent or copyright infringement; for the plaintiff alleging the injury; for economic underdog if one party is clearly an underdog in comparison to the other, neither party is clearly an economic underdog; in cases pitting an individual against a business, the individual is presumed to be the economic underdog unless there is a clear indication in the opinion to the contrary; for debtor or bankrupt; for government or private party raising claim of violation of antitrust laws, or party opposing merger; for the economic underdog in private conflict over securities; for individual claiming a benefit from government; for government in disputes over government contracts and government seizure of property; for government regulation in government regulation of business; for greater protection of the environment or greater consumer protection (even if anti-government); for the injured party in admiralty - personal injury; for economic underdog in admiralty and miscellaneous economic cases. 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.
The plaintiff, appellant, bought a farm on which taxes for prior years had not been paid. Concededly when he bought the land, it was subject to a lien for the unpaid taxes for the current year and the three prior years, this by virtue of legislation by the Puerto Rican Legislature. Later, the defendants caused the property to be attached for these prior taxes and other taxes on the farm. Having paid or tendering taxes which had not become more “than three years old at the time of the attachment, the appellant sought an injunction against the attachment and sale of the land for the older taxes. Such an injunction against the defendants was ob-. tained in the District Court. The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico reversed the District Court and dismissed the complaint.
The basic question was and is one involving local laws and the construction of statutes enacted by the Insular Legislature. No provision of the Constitution of the United States, no Act of the Congress, no Treaty was discussed or considered by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico. None of these is directly involved in this appeal. There is no substantial Federal question to support our jurisdiction. The amount of the taxes here at issue is less than two hundred dollars. The value in controversy is far less than the jurisdictional $5,'000. Our right to hear and determine the appeal rests upon the provisions contained in U.S.Code, Title 28, Section 225, 28 U.S.C.A. § 225, reading, so far as here applicable, as follows:
“§ 225. Appellate jurisdiction.
“(a) Review of final decisions. The circuit courts of appeal shall have appellate jurisdiction to review by appeal final decisions.
* * *
“Fourth. In the Supreme Courts of the Territory of Hawaii and of Puerto Rico, in all cases, civil or criminal, wherein the Constitution or a statute or treaty of the United States or any authority exercised thereunder is involved; in all other civil cases wherein the value in controversy, exclusive of interests and costs, exceeds $5,-000, and in all habeas corpus proceedings.”
The case at bar is not within the statute.
The appeal is dismissed for want of jurisdiction.

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

Answer: B