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.
Note that if an individual is listed by name, but their appearance in the case is as a government official, then they should be counted as a government rather than as a private person. For example, in the case "Billy Jones & Alfredo Ruiz v Joe Smith" where Smith is a state prisoner who brought a civil rights suit against two of the wardens in the prison (Jones & Ruiz), the following values should be coded: number of appellants that fall into the category "natural persons" =0 and number that fall into the category "state governments, their agencies, and officials" =2. A similar logic should be applied to businesses and associations. Officers of a company or association whose role in the case is as a representative of their company or association should be coded as being a business or association rather than as a natural person. However, employees of a business or a government who are suing their employer should be coded as natural persons. Likewise, employees who are charged with criminal conduct for action that was contrary to the company policies should be considered natural persons.
If the title of a case listed a corporation by name and then listed the names of two individuals that the opinion indicated were top officers of the same corporation as the appellants, then the number of appellants should be coded as three and all three were coded as a business (with the identical detailed code). Similar logic should be applied when government officials or officers of an association were listed by name.
Your specific task is to determine the total number of appellants in the case that fall into the category "private business and its executives". If the total number cannot be determined (e.g., if the appellant is listed as "Smith, et. al." and the opinion does not specify who is included in the "et.al."), then answer 99.

Opinion:
Ahssem RIFAI, Petitioner-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES PAROLE COMMISSION and Warden, United States Penitentiary, McNeil Island, Washington, Respondents-Appellees.
No. 78-1859.
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
Nov. 20, 1978.
Stephen K. Strong (argued), of Bendich, Stobaugh & Strong, Seattle, Wash., for petitioner-appellant.
William H. Rubidge, Asst. U. S. Atty. (argued), Seattle, Wash., for respondentsappellees.
Before VAN DUSEN, WRIGHT and GOODWIN, Circuit Judges.
Senior Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit.
EUGENE A. WRIGHT, Circuit Judge:
Rifai petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus challenging the denial of his release on parole by the United States Parole Commission (Commission). He asserted that the Commission’s use of new parole release guidelines and statutory standards in making his parole decision violated the prohibition of ex post facto laws. The district court denied his petition and he raises the same issues on appeal. We affirm.
I.
FACTS
Rifai was convicted in 1972 for importing and possessing heroin and sentenced to ten years. He attempted to influence a witness in a motion for a new trial, and was convicted in 1974 for conspiracy to suborn perjury and obstruction of justice. For this second conviction, he was sentenced to two concurrent five-year terms to run consecutively to the ten-year sentence.
At the time Rifai was sentenced on both convictions, the Commission determined whether to release a prisoner on parole under the following statutory standards:
If it appears to the [Commission] . that there is a reasonable probability that such prisoner will live and remain at liberty without violating the laws, and if in the opinion of the [Commission] such release is not incompatible with the welfare of society, the [Commission] may in its discretion authorize the release of such prisoner on parole.
18 U.S.C. § 4203(a) (1970) (repealed 1976). Prior to 1973, although the Commission considered several other factors within this broad grant of discretion, it emphasized institutional performance as the primary criterion in determining parole release. The Commission does not dispute here that, with one exception, Rifai’s institutional behavior was exemplary.
Pursuant to § 4203(a), however, the Commission adopted guidelines in 1973 which changed the emphasis on the criteria considered in determining parole release. Under the new guidelines which rank offenses according to their severity and recommend corresponding periods of incarceration, the Commission emphasizes offense severity.
In June 1976, Congress enacted the Parole Commission and Reorganization Act of 1976, Pub.L. No. 94-233, 90 Stat. 219 (codified at 18 U.S.C.A. § 4201, et seq. (Supp. 1978)) (Parole Commission Act), which, inter alia, repealed § 4203(a) and rephrased the statutory standards for parole release determinations. Pursuant to 18 U.S.C.A. § 4206 (West Supp.1978), the new standards are:
If an eligible prisoner has substantially observed the rules of the institution . to which he has been confined, and if the Commission, upon consideration of the nature and circumstances of the offense and the history and characteristics of the prisoner, determines:
(1) that release would not depreciate the seriousness of his offense or promote disrespect for the law; and
(2) that release would not jeopardize the public welfare; subject to the provisions of subsections (b) and (c) of this section, and pursuant to guidelines promulgated by the Commission . . . such prisoner shall be released.
The Act, in essence, adopted the approach of the Commission’s 1973 guidelines in emphasizing offense severity, instead of institutional behavior, for parole release determinations.
The parole hearing in question here was held in December 1976. Rifai claims that the use of, first, the 1973 guidelines and, second, the 1976 statutory standards in his parole release determination violated the ex post facto prohibition. He contends that, despite his exemplary institutional behavior that might have qualified him for parole prior to 1973, the Commission denied parole because it evaluated his opportunity for parole release under the new guidelines and statutory standards emphasizing offense severity.
II.
DISCUSSION
The Supreme Court early concluded that “every law that changes the punishment, and inflicts a greater punishment, than the law annexed to the crime, when committed” constitutes an ex post facto violation. Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. (3 Dali.) 386, 390, 1 L.Ed. 648 (1798). With this in mind, we analyze Rifai’s ex post facto claims.
A. THE 1973 COMMISSION GUIDELINES.
Rifai uses two arguments in contending that the guidelines are “laws” for purposes of the ex post facto prohibition. First, he asserts that because the guidelines are followed with regularity, they have the force and effect of law. We reject this argument. Under this theory, any policy or practice followed with some frequency would constitute a “law” from which an agency could not vary.
Second, he argues that this court’s holding in Love v. Fitzharris, 460 F.2d 382 (9th Cir. 1972), vacated as moot, 409 U.S. 1100, 93 S.Ct. 896, 34 L.Ed.2d 682 (1973), mandates that the guidelines be treated as law. In Love, a California agency interpreted the state’s parole eligibility statutes and decided that, when consecutive sentences were imposed, California Penal Code § 3049 applied and a prisoner could be paroled after the expiration of one-third of his minimum sentence. The agency later reinterpreted the statutes and concluded that narcotics offenders would be eligible for parole only after serving two and one-half years on each consecutive sentence. We held that this change in the agency interpretation of parole eligibility statutes had the force and effect of law and violated the prohibition of ex post facto laws.
In Love we distinguished the case of In re Costello, 262 F.2d 214 (9th Cir. 1958). In Costello, the Adult Authority, after initially fixing defendant’s term of imprisonment under the California indeterminate sentence law, later increased the term upon cause shown. We held that the agency action was “within the authority well established by court decisions" which permitted the increase in term. In contrast, Love involved a situation where the agency “changed its interpretation of the authority itself.” Love, 460 F.2d at 385.
This case is more closely analogous to Costello than Love. The Commission here was well within established statutory authority when it promulgated the guidelines. See, e. g., Wiley v. Board of Parole, 380 F.Supp. 1194 (M.D.Pa.1974); Battle v. Norton, 365 F.Supp. 925 (D.Conn.1973) (upholding the guidelines against ultra vires challenges under the pre-1976 statutory standards). The broad standards enunciated by Congress gave the Commission great discretion, and changes in the emphasis or de-emphasis of parole release considerations within the statutory scheme were clearly authorized. The guidelines, therefore, are merely procedural guideposts, without the characteristics of laws. See Ruip v. United States, 555 F.2d 1331 (6th Cir. 1977) (the 1973 guidelines are not laws).
B. THE 1976 STATUTORY CHANGES.
Rifai argues that the 1976 statutory standards changed the law governing parole release determinations to his detriment, causing him to serve a longer sentence than he would have under the pre-1976 standards.
We conclude, however, that the 1976 standards did not change the law governing parole release decisions. In enacting the Parole Commission Act, Congress recognized that “[t]he standards for release on parole . . . are not significantly changed from existing law.” Sen.Rep. No. 94-369, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. (1976), reprinted in 2 [1976] U.S.Code Cong. & Admin. News, pp. 335, 339.
At most, the 1976 standards may have announced an emphasis on certain parole release considerations, but they did not abridge the Commission’s authority to emphasize others within its discretion. The Commission’s scope of authority remains broad and its discretion, with respect to the issues raised here, is not limited by the statutory changes or the guidelines promulgated thereunder.
Rifai’s exemplary institutional performance is not contested. Even under the pre1976 standards, however, he had no guarantee that he would be paroled after a given number of years of good performance. Under the pre-1976 standards the Commission could have denied parole for the same reasons it was denied in December 1976. He has not convinced us that he suffered greater punishment under the 1976 standards than he would have received under the pre1976 scheme.
Rifai’s reliance on De Paralta v. Garrison, 575 F.2d 749 (9th Cir. 1978), is misplaced. That case involved the application of the offense severity factor to prisoners sentenced under the Youth Corrections Act, 18 U.S.C. § 5001, et seq. (1970). Offense severity was a factor excluded under the Youth Corrections Act until its amendment in 1976 by the Parole Commission Act. Shepard v. Taylor, 556 F.2d 648, 652-53 (2d Cir. 1977). The retroactive application of this new criterion was prohibited in De Paralta. Conversely, offense severity has never been excluded as a consideration for parole release determinations for adult offenders.
Because Rifai fails to show that the guidelines are laws within the ex post facto prohibition or that the statutory standards “inflict greater punishment than the law annexed to the crime, when committed,” we reject his ex post facto claim. The district court correctly denied his petition.
AFFIRMED.
. For uniformity, the Parole Commission will be referred to throughout as the Commission, although prior to the Parole Commission and Reorganization Act of 1976, Pub.L. No. 94-233, § 4201, 90 Stat. 219 (codified at 18 U.S.C.A. § 4201 (Supp.1978)), it was known as the Parole Board.
. The guidelines promulgated pursuant to § 4206(a) of the Parole Commission Act are substantially the same as those promulgated in 1973. See 28 C.F.R. § 2.20 (1977) for current guidelines.
. The ex post facto concept has been more broadly expressed as follows:
[A]ny law passed after the commission of an offense, which, . [i]n relation to that offense, or its consequences, alters the situation of a party to his disadvantage, is an ex post facto law . .
Kring v. Missouri, 107 U.S. 221, 235, 2 S.Ct. 443, 455, 27 L.Ed. 506 (1883) (citation omitted).
The test for ex post facto laws also has been described as
not whether the punishment actually received is within the outer limits of the law at the time the crime was committed, but whether “the later standard of punishment is more onerous than the earlier.” Lindsey v. Washington, 301 U.S. 397, 400, 57 S.Ct. 797, 81 L.Ed. 1182 (1937).
Geraghty v. United States Parole Commission, 579 F.2d 238, 264 (3rd Cir. 1978).
. The Commission reported in March 1974 that 89% to 94% of its decisions were within the guidelines. There is some indication that this compliance level is dropping. In 1975, the Commission’s data indicated that 81% to 89% of its decisions were within the guidelines. If all cases outside the guidelines by virtue of sentencing decisions are excluded from the figures, 77% to 85% of the decisions were in the guidelines range. J. Newman, “Parole Release Decisionmaking and the Sentencing Process,” 84 Yale L.J. 810, 869 n.293 (1975).
. That the guidelines were more than procedural guideposts for purposes of determining the applicability of the Administrative Procedure Act, see Pickus v. U. S. Board of Parole, 165 U.S.App.D.C. 284, 507 F.2d 1107 (1974), does not elevate them to the status of “law” within the meaning of the ex post facto clause. Because the guidelines are not binding on the agency, they cannot be treated as laws although they may be required to be promulgated or modified with procedural regularity.
. But see Geraghty v. United States Parole Commission, 579 F.2d 238, 267 (3d Cir. 1978) (whether the guidelines are followed in the great majority of cases or are procedural guideposts whose application may be negatived by particular circumstances in a case is an issue of fact, the resolution of which is inappropriate on motion for summary judgment.).
. The Commission is not restricted to making parole determinations within the guidelines. If there is “good cause” for doing so, it may go outside the guidelines. 18 U.S.C.A. § 4206(c) (Supp.1978).
Such was the case here. Although the guidelines recommended a range of 26-36 months imprisonment for his offense and Rifai had served 44 months, the Commission elected to go outside the guidelines and keep him in custody.

Question: What is the total number of appellants in the case that fall into the category "private business and its executives"? Answer with a number.

Choices:

Answer: 0