For whatever it's worth he clerked for the FDR-appointed justice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_O._Douglas, was in the US Dept. of Justice under Carter and Reagan, was appointed to the federal court by Clinton, and is a registered Democrat.
(N/W-European here) Is that really a thing that US citizens pay attention to?
So if a particular ruling comes down to personal preference and a judge personally leans conservative, they'll likely rule in a conservative fashion on those small number of cases. If they lean liberal, they'll likely rule in a liberal fashion. You often see this in Supreme Court decisions where the justices are split along political lines, with the conservative justices ruling for the conservative side of the argument and the liberal justices ruling for the liberal side.
That being said, the political stance of most lower judges doesn't matter as they have little impact on case law and few opportunities to make political decisions in their job.