On or about October 13, 2021, San Francisco Fire Department Lt. David Morris recorded a video in his own car. He was off duty, in civilian clothes, with no department insignia. He posted it to a personal social-media account, criticizing how SFFD had handled the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. He took it down the next day.
The department investigated him anyway. Then it moved to fire him.
That is the claim in a new federal lawsuit, Morris v. City and County of San Francisco, No. 4:26-cv-12875-KAW (N.D. Cal.), filed October 30, 2026. These are allegations in a pending case. No court has ruled on them.
Read the complaint yourself:
On November 10, I sat down on Freedom Counsel with the lawyer who filed it: Gregory G. Yacoubian, a California litigation attorney and retired Los Angeles-area police lieutenant with about 22 years in practice, mostly in police and fire defense.
The video
Greg says he approaches mandate cases the way he approaches any discipline case: due process, the labor code, and Skelly. But the facts of this one, he told me, are "really, just striking."
"You have a tenured employee with no history of discipline," Greg said. Morris was off duty. "In other words, he's not in uniform. There's no insignia. Nothing identifying the department at all. No one's named in this video that's created by name, and he's essentially venting, pure and simple."
Greg says Morris was "critical of the way it was handled, to be frank." The complaint alleges the video used internal shorthand — "CD1," "CD2," "CD3" — unlikely to identify particular officials to the general public.
He took the shot
"This is important to understand," Greg said, "he actually did receive that shot."
The complaint alleges Morris complied with SFFD's vaccine mandate and was never charged with failing to get vaccinated. You can't wave this away by calling him an anti-vaxxer. He did what they asked. The question is whether he was still allowed to say what he thought about it.
Four years, and still no First Amendment ruling
The complaint lays out the path: an investigation report on December 20, 2021; a Notice of Intent to Terminate on January 5, 2022; charges filed April 8, 2022, by then-Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson; and a June 24, 2022 Fire Commission hearing that upheld her recommendation of termination.
Morris appealed to binding arbitration. Greg says he was off the job the whole time, "for the most part" unpaid. On July 29, 2026, Hearing Officer Robert Steinberg denied the appeal and sustained the dismissal, finding just cause under department rules. But the constitutional question was left untouched.
"The arbitrator declined to rule on the material defense of the First Amendment, this being protected speech, and that's expressed in his opinion," Greg said.
That is now the question in federal court. The lead claim is First Amendment retaliation under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Greg told me there is a jury demand, and he expects responsive papers by November 27.
"If you speak"
When I asked whether Morris is working now, Greg said he has found other employment, "at the command level." Then he summed up the City's position as he sees it:
"So even if you go along, but if you speak, if you say anything, then we're going to terminate you. And that is absolutely repugnant to the rights that in this country that we recognize as God-given natural rights."
That is Greg's characterization, not the City's own words. A public employee who followed the rule still has the right, as a private citizen on his own time, to criticize it.
Greg closed the show the way a fighter does. "Continue to fight," he said, "because the choices are, you know, trust God, and continue to fight or roll over."
He's choosing to fight. So are we.
If you want backup in fights like this one, join Freedom Counsel for free at freedomcounsel.org.
John Davidson
MagicFeathers.org
