JUDGE JOHN ROBERTS'S Senate confirmation hearings last week were only the opening salvo in a broader war over the future of the Supreme Court. Most observers expect Justice O'Connor's replacement to generate far more contention than Judge Roberts did, since that nominee could substantially change the Court's ideological composition. As the war for the Supreme Court heats up, it's important for conservatives to understand why the nominations matter. Many conservatives have seized on issues where the Court has played, or might play, a decisive role--such as abortion, gay marriage, or the separation between church and state. While these issues are important, they're only part of a broader trend: The left has been fighting the culture wars through the courts for more than three decades. Its agenda has been advanced not through sound legal reasoning, but through political philosophy masquerading as constitutional interpretation. Unless conservative jurists can change our country's legal trajectory, the left may win the culture wars through clever use of the least democratic branch of government...