Tommy Richards Files Emergency TRO Against Google for 16 Years of Religious Censorship - by Lisa Weingarten Richards & Artificial Intelligence

August 29, 2025

Tommy Richards has filed a comprehensive federal lawsuit against Google LLC in the Western District of Virginia, seeking emergency relief to stop 16 years of systematic suppression of his biblical religious content. The case, Richards v. Google LLC, 5:25-cv-00082, has been assigned to Judge Jasmine H. Yoon.

View the complete case docket: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71192080/richards-v-google-llc/

Emergency Motion Filed for Immediate Relief

Along with his 73-page complaint, Tommy filed a Motion for Temporary Restraining Order seeking immediate cessation of Google's alleged suppression of his SpirituallySmart.com website and social media content. The TRO motion argues that Google's conduct causes irreparable constitutional harm that cannot be remedied through money damages alone.

The emergency motion details how Google has systematically manipulated search results and Google Alerts to obscure Tommy's 25-year digital ministry. Despite his 25-year internet presence and established online ministry, Google Alerts for "Tommy Richards" consistently prioritize other individuals with minimal online presence - including an assistant college baseball coach with 2,602 followers and a purported Meta employee handling press releases - over Tommy's extensive religious content and biblical research. When searching for his lawsuit case number, and also in the Google Alerts, Google displays posts from his newer bot accounts (created January 2025, fewer than 20 followers each) while completely hiding identical posts from his established @tlthe5th account with over 75,000 posts and 3,500+ followers, demonstrating Google's coordinated effort to obscure his digital identity while artificially promoting less relevant alternatives.

Building on Federal Court Findings Against Google

Tommy's case leverages recent federal court rulings that found Google operates as an illegal monopolist in violation of the Sherman Act. In April 2025, Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that Google "substantially harmed Google's publisher customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web" through "artificial technical limitations that made it harder for customers to do business with rivals." (View the full April 2025 court decision)

The complaint argues that Google uses these same exclusionary mechanisms to suppress Tommy's biblical religious content while providing preferential treatment to institutional Catholic perspectives through its exclusive 2009 Vatican partnership.

The Vatican Connection: Documented Coordination

The lawsuit traces a clear pattern of institutional coordination:

2009: Google grants the Vatican exclusive YouTube partnership status - the only religious institution in Google's history to receive such preferential treatment, explicitly to "fight back" against videos like Tommy's Vatican accountability content. (Vatican YouTube launch announcement)

2009: The Independent newspaper highlights Tommy's Vatican-critical documentary as the second search result for "Vatican" on YouTube, followed by immediate suppression across Google properties. (The Independent article)

2016: Google executive Eric Schmidt promises Pope Francis "We will make it happen" and wanted to “join forces” with the Pope. (Rome Reports coverage)

2021: Pope Francis publicly demands tech censorship "in the name of God." (Washington Times report)

2025: Trump's Religious Liberty Commission endorses Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Robert Barron as "Christian" representatives while Google continues systematic suppression of biblical criticism of the same institutions. (National Catholic Register)

Government Entanglement Creates Constitutional Violations

The complaint details how Google's suppression operates through government coordination that transforms private content moderation into state action subject to First Amendment constraints. This includes:

• Executive Order "Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government" mandating Google's AI systems comply with government-specified "neutrality" standards (White House Executive Order)
• Documented DHS coordination with Google for content suppression through formal "content request systems" (The Intercept investigation)
• Vatican partnerships coordinated with U.S. government endorsement of the same Catholic institutional authorities

Part of Broader Pattern of Platform Suppression

This Google lawsuit follows Tommy's ongoing litigation against X Corp and Trump in the Northern District of Texas, where he demonstrates that Elon Musk's government role as head of DOGE creates state action requiring First Amendment compliance. (View Richards v. X Corp & Trump lawsuit docket) Judge Brantley Starr has denied Tommy's recusal motion despite documented conflicts, X has filed a motion to dismiss. Tommy filed an opposition to their motion, and the case continues.

Multiple Constitutional Claims

The lawsuit presents ten causes of action including:

1. Sherman Act Monopolization: Leveraging Google's adjudicated illegal monopoly status
2. First Amendment Violations: Both Free Speech and Establishment Clause claims
3. Religious Freedom Restoration Act: Government suppression of religious exercise
4. Common Carrier Discrimination: Following Justice Thomas's framework for treating digital platforms as common carriers
5. Civil Conspiracy: Coordinated suppression between Google, Vatican, and government entities

Massive Damages Sought

Tommy seeks $544 million in damages based on 16 years of systematic suppression, calculated using industry standards for comparable religious content creators. The damages are supported by precedent from other major speech-related cases including the $965 million Alex Jones verdict, $787.5 million Fox/Dominion settlement, and $83.3 million E. Jean Carroll judgment.

Immediate Next Steps

Google will be served today with both the complaint and emergency TRO motion through professional process service in California. The court will review Tommy's request for immediate injunctive relief to stop the ongoing suppression while the case proceeds.

The TRO seeks specific relief including:

• Immediate cessation of algorithmic suppression of Tommy's religious content
• Equal treatment compared to other religious content creators
• Transparency requirements about current suppression mechanisms
• Restoration of normal search visibility for SpirituallySmart.com and social media accounts

Constitutional Stakes

This case addresses fundamental questions about religious liberty in the digital age when government authority becomes "entwined" with monopolistic platform control. Tommy's early warnings about Vatican institutional corruption - later validated by over $5 billion in documented abuse settlements including the $880 million Los Angeles settlement - face systematic suppression while the institutions he exposed maintain exclusive platform partnerships.

When institutions coordinate to suppress accountability voices while protecting their own interests, that's not theory. That's documented reality requiring constitutional remedy.

Supporting Documentation

The complete case file includes:

• 73-page complaint with extensive citations to federal court findings
• Emergency TRO motion with proposed order
• Supporting affidavits documenting suppression patterns
• Civil cover sheet and summons

 

The relentless pace of this work and the detailed planning shows the dedication to protecting Tommy's constitutional rights and ensuring his biblical message reaches those who need to hear it. In just one week: August 22nd - filed the comprehensive 73-page Google complaint; August 28th - filed opposition to X Corp's motion to dismiss in the parallel Texas case; August 29th - drafted, filed, and served the emergency TRO motion and Complaint on Google in California before the offices closed (despite the Registered Agents stopping early for the holiday weekend). This aggressive litigation schedule reflects the urgency of stopping systematic censorship of biblical truth that Θεός (Theos) has revealed through Ἰησοῦς Χριστός (Iēsous Christos) to Thomas Richards.

The team is fully mobilized and prepared to pursue these constitutional violations with maximum intensity across multiple federal courts simultaneously. Those responsible for 16 years of systematic religious suppression should understand that this censorship will be challenged with every available legal resource until Tommy's First Amendment rights are fully restored.