Texas Supreme Court halts probe into who sent trans mailers

GOP women's group denies involvement

By Ian M. Giatti, Christian Post Reporter Sunday, November 01, 2026

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday paused efforts to identify who sent texts and mailers promoting transgender ideology and resources, a day after a deposition linked the texts to a GOP fund.

The administrative stay order issued in the case of Texas Transgender Student Union LLC comes after a Travis County judge ruled that attorneys for the Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT) could question a representative of the Wyoming company, whose name appeared on the mailers’ return address. The mailers, addressed to students, prominently named TENT and linked to its website. The company was formed on Sept. 2 in Sheridan, Wyoming, according to state filings reviewed by CBS News Texas.

The court order temporarily pauses questioning while justices review the petition for a writ of mandamus and a separate request for temporary relief, according to court documents.

The court directed attorneys to respond by 10 a.m. Monday.

An attorney for Texas Transgender Student Union LLC, Chris Hilton, argued in court that the mailers were protected speech and were not political, noting that they did not mention a candidate or party. “The First Amendment protects speech 365 days a year — especially in an election year,” Hilton said. He called the return address, which is nearly identical to TENT’s, a printer’s “typo,” and said TENT’s real goal was to expose the company’s members “to the social media mob they’ve whipped up.”

Earlier this month, Texas families across the state reported receiving unsolicited text messages and later physical mailers that promoted resources from TENT. TENT estimates that 3.6 million to 4.2 million mailers were sent. The materials linked to the TENT website, which featured guidance on advocating for trans-identified students regarding access to opposite-sex bathrooms, using wrong gender pronouns using pronouns that don’t match their sex, launching allied student clubs and how to seek legal emancipation from one’s parents.

TENT has strongly denied any involvement with the mailers and called the distribution a political attack timed to coincide with the start of early voting. The group says it has received death threats and has had to deactivate its website, suspend programming and hire security.

On Thursday, Travis County District Judge Jan Soifer ordered the public release of a deposition from the messaging company Infobip, which said the text campaign was registered on behalf of the “Republican Women Caucus Fund” and an individual named John Braun.

The deposition was taken from the messaging company Infobip and shared with The Texas Tribune by TENT, according to the newspaper’s reporting. It is unclear whether the caucus fund or Braun had any role in the mailers. Infobip said it has no business relationship with Texas Transgender Student Union LLC.

The Republican Women’s Caucus Fund supports GOP women lawmakers. The organization released a statement Friday denying any involvement with the campaign. 

In an X post, the fund said it “has had absolutely no involvement in the text messaging or direct mail activities at issue in Texas. We did not authorize, fund, direct, coordinate, or participate in these activities in any capacity. RWCF has been wrongfully named in this lawsuit. We categorically reject these false allegations and are pursuing all available legal remedies to protect our organization and hold those responsible accountable.”

A lawyer for the fund, Steve Roberts, told the Tribune it was unclear why Infobip named the group, and that the fund has never had a contractual relationship with the company. A Republican Washington state senator named John Braun, whose campaign shares a treasurer with the fund, also denied involvement in a statement to The Texas Observer.

TENT’s lawyer, Mimi Marziani, said the group may have been named “because of some shared right-wing vendor,” adding that “it’s not immediately clear where this association leads.”

The texts, distributed earlier this month across Texas through Infobip’s platform, directed recipients to pages on the Transgender Education Network of Texas website. In a response attached to the filing, Infobip said it takes TENT’s concerns seriously, does not condone use of its network to transmit messages that misrepresent the sender’s identity, and cannot disclose a customer’s identity outside an ongoing legal process. 

The company said it has notified its customer, suspended the relevant category of messaging traffic pending review, and directed the customer to cooperate and provide information about the messages.

A spokesman for Infobip told CP last week that while the company could not disclose details about the case “due to confidentiality obligations,” Infobip “did not author or originate the content of the messages in question.”

“Upon becoming aware of the issue, we took immediate action. We have suspended the traffic in question and are actively monitoring the situation to prevent further occurrences,” said Infobip spokesman Marcelo Nihime. “Furthermore, we are in active contact and cooperating with TENT’s lawyer on this matter.”

The TENT website includes a section on Senate Bill 12, the 2025 law that prohibits public school districts from establishing any diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices, policies or activities that “reference race, color, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation.”

The bill also bans student clubs based on sexual orientation or gender identity, such as Gay-Straight Alliance, as well as any “instruction, guidance, activities, or programming regarding sexual orientation or gender identity” to students through 12th grade.