Or maybe the court that the RIAA thinks will ultimately hear any related cases just had a conservative judge confirmed that they think will be sympathetic to them.
The best ACB (who AFAIK has very little if any notable copyright record, either as a judge or otherwise) could be, from their perspective, is no change from the status quo ante.
Intellectual Property also seems like a more liberal realm, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, RIAA, MPAA, Disney, Apple, etc. all seem to be quite left leaning.
No idea where that line of thinking came from. Though if I were a little more cynical I'd say sometimes it feels like there's a trend to attribute everything negative to conservatives.