[T]he Institute for Justice (a libertarian public interest firm) litigated the case of Kelo v. City of New London, challenging the condemnation of homes for private economic development. In a badly flawed 2005 ruling, a narrow 5-4 Supreme Court majority rejected IJ’s argument that this taking violated the Fifth Amendment’s requirement that eminent domain can only be employed for a “public use.” But the decision caused a public outcry that led to the enactment of eminent domain reform laws in 45 states.

Craig v. Boren, the 1976 decision in which the Supreme Court ruled for the first time that laws discriminating on the basis of sex are presumptively unconstitutional and subject to heightened scrutiny, was in part a result of years of opinion-shaping activism by the feminist movement. Such a decision would have been impossible in earlier eras.

It is particularly important to recognize the limits of public attention and knowledge. Survey data shows most voters pay little attention to politics, and often don’t know even basic information about government and public policy—including judicial decisions. This makes it hard to attract public attention to more than a few legal battles at any given time.