The 9th Circuit comes up with some flaky decisions because the first time a case is heard, it's heard by a three-judge panel, not the entire court. Two or three judges on that three-judge panel could be from San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley or Los Angeles and be as nutty as a bowl of granola.
En banc decisions by the 9th Circuit are a little more normal because they're heard by the entire court, which includes several very solid conservatives, including Chief Justice Kozinski, who was appointed by Ronald Reagan. Like Kozinski said, "For better or worse, we are the Court of Appeals for the Hollywood Circuit."
Agreed, this was a unanimous decision of the three judge panel on the ruling which surprised me though one judge dissented on the removal of the lower court judge.