Too often the great legal abstractions involved in a Supreme Court decision obscure the basic human drama at the core of the case. Amid the frenzied and breathless analysis of today's High Court ruling on affirmative action, reverse discrimination, and disparate impact is a very basic and compelling story of one very tenacious man's fight to get something he rightfully and fairly earned with immense sweat, struggle, and toil.

Continued...

New Haven firefighter Lou Ricci surmounted immense adversity with lengthy study and effort. He played by the rules set up by his profession, patiently and assiduously seeking advancement within a framework that was scarcely advantageous to somebody with his disabilities, but which he accepted and ultimately overcame. His many days and hours of excruciating academic labor finally bore fruit when he scored well on the prescribed exam.

And then that fruit was taken from him. All of Lou Ricci's hours of dogged work and valiant effort were abruptly cast aside and dismissed as irrelevant, sacrificed on The Altar of Workplace Diversity that is today's racial and gender spoils system. Lou Ricci was robbed of what he had rightfully earned.

He fought back and won in the quintessential American way: He went to court. He sued and at long last, prevailed. The robbery of Ricci was ultimately stymied, albeit by the most narrow of margins.

What most of today's punditry and commentators are missing in their dissection of today's Ricci ruling is this basic fact: this case was about a man being robbed of the fruits of his labor. There is nothing more intrinsically unjust, and the redress of such injustice is the very reason for the existence of our judicial system.

Contributed by Jim Cullison