Republican State Board of Education Member Julie Pickren has fired back after Democrat SBOE Member Marissa Perez-Diaz sent her a cease-and-desist letter over Pickren calling her a Marxist in social media posts.
Pickren published a response from her attorney, State Rep. Briscoe Cain (R–Deer Park), stating she will “not remove a thing” and will continue to “engage in protected political speech as she pleases.”
“The statements at issue are protected political speech. Yes, my client called you a Marxist and a radical on her campaign social media accounts,” Cain’s letter reads. “If you don’t like being called a Marxist, don’t act like one.”
Diaz, who represents District 3 of the SBOE, sent two letters to Brandon Hall of District 11 and Pickren of District 7. According to The Dallas Express, the letters accuse Hall and Pickren of “false and defamatory statements,” portraying Perez-Diaz in a “false light” by using her image without authorization and engaging in conduct that “appears intended to incite harm and violence.”
Pickren wrote in the original Facebook post published on June 18: “Marxist Democrat Marissa Perez Diaz, January 2025 SBOE Swearing In Ceremony. Fist in the air. No Bible. Radical leftists like MPD are the problem in public education: gender confusion, parents’ rights being trampled on, indoctrination over education, and boys in girls’ sports and restrooms.” The post included an image of Perez-Diaz at her swearing-in ceremony.
Pickren and Hall also shared a video in which Perez-Diaz stated that “America is not exceptional in any way except that we have a huge hubris.”
Perez-Diaz has demanded the removal of “all posts, publications, videos, emails, campaign materials, websites, social media content, advertisements, and communications” containing her “image, likeness, or photograph,” along with the alleged “false” statements about her character, including the Marxist comment.
Perez-Diaz also claimed that the posts containing the material in question were copyrighted and used without permission, violating federal law.
Cain replied that the materials were “transformative, non-commercial, and cause no market substitution,” defeating any allegation of copyright infringement.
Perez-Diaz’s letter ordered Hall and Pickren to preserve campaign materials, including messages, and remove any “defamatory” posts.
She warned that failure to comply would result in “emergency injunctive relief, temporary restraining orders where appropriate, expedited discovery, preservation orders, damages, attorney’s fees, costs, and any other relief authorized by law.”
“Should you choose to sue, have at it,” Cain’s letter reads. “We’ll file a [Texas Citizens Participation Act] motion. Your suit will get tossed, you’ll get sanctioned, you’ll have to pay costs and attorney’s fees, and you’ll get to explain to the court why you thought the proper response to getting called a Marxist was to file a lawsuit.”
