Orin Kerr: Why Do Conservatives Care So Much About the Courts?
Orin Kerr answers the question on the Volokh Conspiracy:
Let me paint with a very broad brush and offer my best explanation. The primary reason, I think, is the nature of the Supreme Court’s docket in the last fifty years. During that period, most high profile Supreme Court constitutional law decisions have considered whether to ban practices embraced by conservatives rather than whether to ban practices embraced by liberals. For conservatives — especially social conservatives, and especially religious conservatives — the question has been whether the courts will allow their views, not whether the courts will mandate them . . .