Texas Supreme Court Puts Questioning Over the Mystery Transgender Mailers on Hold
Days before the midterm elections, the state's highest court has paused the effort to unmask whoever sent mailers about transgender resources to thousands of Texas households - mailers addressed to 'students' that the group named on them says it never sent.
The Texas Supreme Court has paused proceedings in the fight over a set of mysterious mailers about transgender resources that landed in thousands of Texas households just days before the midterm elections. Friday's stay temporarily halts questioning while the justices review a petition for a writ of mandamus and a separate request for temporary relief.
The mailers were addressed to 'students' at the households they reached and repeatedly reference the Transgender Education Network of Texas, or TENT. TENT has denied sending them and denied any affiliation with the sender. The organization filed a petition in an Austin court for discovery to find out who is behind the mailers, and a Travis County judge ruled that TENT's attorneys could question the people responsible - the ruling the Supreme Court's stay now puts on hold.
The mailers carry a return name, the Texas Transgender Student Union, an organization formed in September in Wyoming. An Austin attorney, Chris Hilton, who previously worked for Attorney General Ken Paxton, represents that Wyoming entity; in court documents he argued his client wants to keep its identity hidden and has a First Amendment right to remain anonymous.
The mailers followed reports of a mass text-message campaign with similar messaging that linked to resources on TENT's website. The Texas Tribune reported that during a deposition on Thursday, the messaging company Infobip said the texts were sent on behalf of a national Republican caucus fund, and that the 'Republican Women Caucas Fund' and an individual named John Braun were listed as the senders. A spokesperson for the Republican Women's Caucus Fund said the group 'has had absolutely no involvement in the text messaging or direct mail activities at issue in Texas,' called the naming wrongful, and said it is pursuing legal remedies. Whether the parties named in the text deposition were also involved in the mailers is not established, FOX 7 Austin reported.
