All Sheriff Joe Arpaio wants to do is spread some holiday cheer.

Trouble is, the Arizona lawman keeps getting sued by those pesky inmates over the Christmas carols he has been piping for hours at a time into the Maricopa County jail system during the holiday season.

Arpaio, who styles himself “America’s toughest sheriff,” was crowing over the dismissal of two recent lawsuits, brought by inmates who said the music forces them to participate in a religious celebration. They were the fifth and sixth such suits dismissed in the last two years.

Inmates “should stop acting like the Grinch who stole Christmas and give up wasting the court’s time with such frivolous assertions,” Arpaio told the Associated Press.

(An inapt allusion: Holiday music didn’t provoke the Grinch to litigation; it inspired him to change. He was making off with Christmas when he heard the people of Whoville sing. And what happened then? Well, in Whoville they say that the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day.)

Whether or not he’s America’s toughest sheriff, Arpaio is certainly the most notorious, having gained both an ardent following and a legion of critics by housing prisoners in tents in the Arizona desert, dressing them in pink, cutting meals from three a day to two and creating what he says are the world’s first female and juvenile chain gangs.

He has focused particular attention on arresting and detaining undocumented immigrants. Most recently, he has been accused of using his police powers to try to intimidate political opponents.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office says music from all countries and faiths is played.