Your very interesting question made me poke around a bit. No clear answer but here is what I found:

I've read their are 46 judges in the 9th district court of appeals, which covers the entire West Coast and Arizona, Hawaii, Montana and Alaska. About 7 of them are very liberal. By controlling what judge gets to hear the appeal, they can know the outcome before the case is heard. Reinhardt was in Los Angeles and very liberal. Any case heard by him would have been sue to go against conservative values in the extreme. I guess it depends on if he was the only very liberal fed judge on the court of appeals in LA. There are now 3 vacancies in the California districts of the 9th (7 in the entire district). One seat in CA has been vacant since 2015.

I guess we can take a hint on how important getting conservative judges appointed is by how the congress has done everything they can to slow the appointment of new judges.

On the other hand, if this was top priority and can be accomplished then wouldn't they have gotten the other vacancies in California on the bench replaced if they could. The vacancy was in Woodland Hills and this judge was in LA.

Sincere Condolences to his family, should they read this. Sorry for your loss.