Stephen Reinhardt was a self proclaimed activist judge. Wikipedia has decent info on how he conducted himself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Reinhardt#

Stephen Reinhardt was a self proclaimed activist judge. Wikipedia has decent info on how he conducted himself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Reinhardt#Judicial_philosophy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Reinhardt#Judicial_phi... The very makeup of the court is unusual, and results in issues. Even SCOTUS thinks it should be changed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_Ninth_Circuit#Controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals... The fact that they are reversed so often, have firebrand partisans on the bench (Reinhard recently died, but there are others carrying his ideology), and don't even come to a complete consensus between all the judges is enough for me to conclude it's not the most impartial court around. (I wager other apellate courts suffer from similar issues, but I'd prefer my judges to be as unbiased as possible, even if I mostly agree with their agenda)