The East Plano Islamic Center is including the head of the state’s funeral regulatory agency in its lawsuit alleging the agency’s investigation into EPIC is unlawful and involves religious discrimination, according to recent court filings.
The mosque lists Kristin Tips, the presiding officer of the Texas Funeral Service Commission, or TFSC, as a defendant in an amended Oct. 3 version of its lawsuit against the commission. It alleges Tips’ text messages sharing anti-Muslim content with the commission’s former executive director show discriminatory conduct during TFSC’s investigation into EPIC’s funeral practices.
“Defendant Tips’s hostility toward EPIC’s faith and her approval of disparaging comments about Islam demonstrate that the Commission’s actions were motivated by religious animus rather than any legitimate regulatory concern,” the suit states.
An attorney for EPIC declined to comment. Tips and TFSC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
TFSC, the state agency responsible for regulation and licensing in the death care industry, sent EPIC a cease-and-desist letter on March 26. It accused the mosque of operating as a funeral home without a license and ordered the mosque to stop its funeral services, a move announced by Gov. Greg Abbott.
The letter came after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation into EPIC for allegedly violating consumer protection laws with EPIC City, the mosque’s planned development in the city of Josephine. A slew of other state investigations into EPIC and EPIC City followed.
EPIC’s original lawsuit alleged the funeral commission’s letter was an illegal overreach, and TFSC doesn’t have the authority to take disciplinary action against the mosque, a non-funeral license holder. EPIC had a funeral home license that expired in 2022, and a deleted portion of the mosque’s website said it partnered with a licensed outside funeral home for services.
The suit also accused state officials of discriminating against the mosque based solely on religion. But in court records, TFSC alleged its investigation was motivated only by evidence showing EPIC was performing unlicensed funeral operations, and prayers or religious observances aren't at issue.
"(EPIC's) effort to recast its funeral operations as nothing more than religious rites that fall outside the realm of legitimate state regulation is legally and factually inaccurate," the attorney general's office, representing TFSC, wrote in court filings.
The commission also argues EPIC's claims are barred by sovereign immunity, a legal defense that protects the government from civil liability.
A letter filed in July as part of the suit, however, stated EPIC is authorized to continue its funeral and burial rites as a religious organization, so long as they’re performed without compensation and lawfully. The investigation is ongoing, the letter said, and a final determination hasn’t been made, but the agency is still seeking "credible information" showing wrongdoing.
Then text messages obtained by KERA and the Houston Chronicle showed Tips sending Scott Bingaman — TFSC’s former executive director fired in June — an anti-Islam graphic and videos and photos of one of the state’s only Muslim lawmakers, who was on a committee considering a bill Tips advocated for in the Texas Legislature.
EPIC’s new complaint alleges the commission’s letter violated EPIC’s rights under the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It accuses both TFSC and Tips — because of her texts — of violating the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment by targeting EPIC’s funeral services and not secular or non-Muslim entities.
“No reasonable official in 2025 could believe that ordering a mosque to cease its Islamic rites—particularly while expressing overt anti-Muslim animus—was lawful,” the suit states.
A Muslim civil rights group asked the governor to probe TFSC for alleged civil rights violations after the texts surfaced. At a signing for a bill meant to target EPIC’s planned development in Josephine, Abbott said the funeral commission’s investigation was prompted by a complaint made by another provider — but he didn’t comment on Tips’ text messages.
The start of TFSC's investigation into EPIC was followed by a tumultuous period for the usually-quiet state agency. After the commission fired Bingaman in June, he sued TFSC to challenge his firing, alleging dysfunction within the agency.
The commission then fired staff attorneys who supported Bingaman and later sued them for speaking about their firings, a suit that was eventually dropped. Other staff have been fired since then.
Toluwani Osibamowo is KERA’s law and justice reporter. Got a tip? Email Toluwani at tosibamowo@kera.org.
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