LOS ANGELES, CA - Captain Jeffrey Little, a devout Christian and veteran of more than twenty years in the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Lifeguard Division, returns to federal court this Friday, May 15, seeking partial summary judgment in Little v. Los Angeles County.

In 2023, when the County required that captains ensure the “Progress Pride Flag” was flown at their stations, Little requested a religious accommodation. The County agreed—then reversed course within days. Six disciplinary actions followed in five days, and he was ultimately suspended for 15 days without pay.

When his Division Chief hand-delivered the disciplinary paperwork, he told Captain Little to his face: “Your religious beliefs don’t matter.” Now, nearly three years later, Captain Little still has no permanent protection for his religious beliefs in the workplace. Every June, he must return to the table and ask permission to follow his religious beliefs with no guarantee the answer will be yes.

“When a county official tells a heroic public servant of more than 20 years that his religious beliefs don’t matter and then defends that statement in federal court—that tells you everything about how Los Angeles County approached this issue,” said Paul M. Jonna, Special Counsel to Thomas More Society and Partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP. “This was not a good-faith effort to balance competing interests. This was hostility to religion, plain and simple.”

Captain Little isn’t asking for a court to change the County’s policies. He is simply asking not to be required to personally raise the Pride Progress Flag or order those under his command to raise it. Doing so would violate his Christian religious beliefs. Just three years ago, in Groff v. DeJoy, the U.S. Supreme Court held unanimously that a public employer must grant exactly these kinds of modest religious accommodations absent a showing of “undue hardship”—a substantial burden on the employer’s operations. The County’s own records show there was none.

“Captain Little asked only that his own sincerely held religious beliefs be respected,” Jonna added. “The County’s own records show accommodating him would barely register as a rounding error in its billion-dollar budget. That is exactly the kind of modest, workable accommodation the law requires to ensure our constitutional rights are safeguarded. Here, the Court has an opportunity to make clear that religious beliefs do matter and that the law says so.”

Thomas More Society attorneys are asking the Court to enter partial summary judgment in Captain Little’s favor on his claims of religious discrimination, retaliation, and violation of his First Amendment Free Exercise rights.

The hearing is scheduled for Friday, May 15, 2026 at 10:30 a.m.