What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
Intervenors who participated as parties at the courts of appeals should be counted as either appellants or respondents when it can be determined whose position they supported. For example, if there were two plaintiffs who lost in district court, appealed, and were joined by four intervenors who also asked the court of appeals to reverse the district court, the number of appellants should be coded as six.
In some cases there is some confusion over who should be listed as the appellant and who as the respondent. This confusion is primarily the result of the presence of multiple docket numbers consolidated into a single appeal that is disposed of by a single opinion. Most frequently, this occurs when there are cross appeals and/or when one litigant sued (or was sued by) multiple litigants that were originally filed in district court as separate actions. The coding rule followed in such cases should be to go strictly by the designation provided in the title of the case. The first person listed in the title as the appellant should be coded as the appellant even if they subsequently appeared in a second docket number as the respondent and regardless of who was characterized as the appellant in the opinion.
To clarify the coding conventions, consider the following hypothetical case in which the US Justice Department sues a labor union to strike down a racially discriminatory seniority system and the corporation (siding with the position of its union) simultaneously sues the government to get an injunction to block enforcement of the relevant civil rights law. From a district court decision that consolidated the two suits and declared the seniority system illegal but refused to impose financial penalties on the union, the corporation appeals and the government and union file cross appeals from the decision in the suit brought by the government. Assume the case was listed in the Federal Reporter as follows:
United States of America,
Plaintiff, Appellant
v
International Brotherhood of Widget Workers,AFL-CIO
Defendant, Appellee.
International Brotherhood of Widget Workers,AFL-CIO
Defendants, Cross-appellants
v
United States of America.
Widgets, Inc. & Susan Kuersten Sheehan, President & Chairman
of the Board
Plaintiff, Appellants,
v
United States of America,
Defendant, Appellee.
This case should be coded as follows:Appellant = United States, Respondents = International Brotherhood of Widget Workers Widgets, Inc., Total number of appellants = 1, Number of appellants that fall into the category "the federal government, its agencies, and officials" = 1, Total number of respondents = 3, Number of respondents that fall into the category "private business and its executives" = 2, Number of respondents that fall into the category "groups and associations" = 1.
When coding the detailed nature of participants, use your personal knowledge about the participants, if you are completely confident of the accuracy of your knowledge, even if the specific information is not in the opinion. For example, if "IBM" is listed as the appellant it could be classified as "clearly national or international in scope" even if the opinion did not indicate the scope of the business. 
Your task is to determine the nature of the first listed respondent.

Opinion:
William G. RIPLINGER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant-Appellee.
No. 81-3626.
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
Argued and Submitted Nov. 4, 1982.
Decided Jan. 5, 1983.
Charles E. Welsh, Seattle, Wash., for plaintiff-appellant.
Donald M. Currie, Asst. U.S. Atty., Seattle, Wash., for defendant-appellee.
Before KILKENNY, KENNEDY and SKOPIL, Circuit Judges.
KENNEDY, Circuit Judge:
Appellant Riplinger, a contract analyst for the Department of the Navy, was recruited from the private sector with the express representation that he would be employed initially at grade GS-11, step 10. Through a series of administrative errors, none attributable to Riplinger, necessary government approval for step increases was not obtained, and the maximum pay authorized by statute and regulations was GS-11, step 1. In grade GS-11, the pay for step 1 is considerably less than for step 10.
Riplinger learned of his appointment at grade GS-11, step 1, after he had entered upon duty, and he began prompt action for administrative relief. This suit followed, with a claim for money damages under a breach of contract theory based on Tucker Act jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1346(a)(2), or alternatively, for back pay under the Back Pay Act, 5 U.S.C. § 5596. All parties admit the correctness of Riplinger’s factual recitals, and all should admit the equity of his claim, but it is well-settled that the law provides no relief.
The Back Pay Act is of no avail to appellant. The statute permits recovery where an employee suffers injury from wrongfully reduced or improperly calculated pay, measured by the emoluments of his duly appointed position. United States v. Testan, 424 U.S. 392, 407, 96 S.Ct. 948, 957, 47 L.Ed.2d 114 (1976); Donovan v. United States, 580 F.2d 1203, 1208 (3d Cir.1978). The question here is the rank and appointment to which appellant was entitled at the outset; and as we conclude that he was not entitled to appointment at step 10 of grade GS-11, the Back Pay Act simply is not applicable.
Whatever may be the case where the status of an employee is not specified by the Congress, see Hopkins v. United States, 427 U.S. 123, 96 S.Ct. 2508, 49 L.Ed.2d 361 (1976), where the position held is an appointment provided for by law, a federal employee is entitled only to the salary of the appointed position. In this respect, it is said that federal employees serve by appointment, not by contract. Though a distinction between appointment and contract may sound dissonant in a regime accustomed to the principle that the employment relationship has its ultimate basis in contract, the distinction nevertheless prevails in government service. The terms of the appointment displace previous understandings, understandings that in other contexts might have created a contractual right. In so holding, it appears the courts follow the rationale that the government should not be bound by representations at variance with promulgated statutes and regulations fixing the pay of its employees, a rule sometimes expressed simply as a part of the doctrine of sovereign immunity. See United States v. Testan, 424 U.S. 392 at 400, 96 S.Ct. at 954.
We agree with the Court of Claims in Shaw v. United States, 640 F.2d 1254, 1260 (1981), which declared:
[Pjlaintiff may not base his theory of recovery on contract law since he was a federal employee. Federal officials who by word or act generate expectations in persons they employ do not ipso facto create a contract liability running from the Federal Government to the employee, as they might if the employer were not the government.
Federal employees are not entitled to rely upon the promises of government officials that they will be appointed to a particular grade or step, id.; and see Ganse v. United States, 376 F.2d 900 (Ct.Cl.1967). The appointment of federal employees is a discretionary act, see Sampson v. Murray, 415 U.S. 61, 70 n. 17, 94 S.Ct. 937, 943 n. 17, 39 L.Ed.2d 166 (1974); United States v. Testan, 424 U.S. at 406, 96 S.Ct. at 957, and the emoluments they are entitled to receive is determined by statute, not by prior representations respecting pay or grade.
Accordingly, the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.

Question: What is the nature of the first listed respondent?

Choices:
private business (including criminal enterprises)
private organization or association
federal government (including DC)
sub-state government (e.g., county, local, special district)
state government (includes territories & commonwealths)
government - level not ascertained
natural person (excludes persons named in their official capacity or who appear because of a role in a private organization)
miscellaneous
not ascertained

Answer: 2