Student Gregorio Oliveres Gutierrez, shown on Jan. 28, 2025, is suing University of Texas at Dallas officials, arguing they violated his free speech rights by disciplining him over a disclaimer he attached to a student’s guest column.
Azul Sordo/Staff Photographer
A student journalist at the University of Texas at Dallas is suing university officials, arguing they violated his free speech rights by disciplining him over a disclaimer he attached to a student’s guest column.
In 2024, Gregorio Olivares Gutierrez, then editor-in-chief of UTD’s student-run paper The Mercury, added a note to a student’s letter to the editor about antisemitism and the Israel-Palestine conflict clarifying that it was an opinion piece and not a news article.
Olivares Gutierrez said he repeatedly asked the writer, president of UTD’s Hillel chapter, to provide sources for factual claims during the editing process, according to the lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Austin. When the writer did not do so, Olivares Gutierrez ultimately chose to run the full piece with a disclaimer that “the presentation of opinion as fact within this article…does not meet the journalistic standards of The Mercury.”
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The student then reported Olivares Gutierrez to university officials for discrimination and he was removed from his post at The Mercury. In February 2026, an outside panel of attorneys concluded he had discriminated against the student by exceeding “ordinary editorial suggestions” and put him on deferred suspension. Olivares Gutierrez is allowed to remain enrolled at UTD but can be suspended if he is found in violation of any other rules.
Olivares Gutierrez, now a senior, argues the disclaimer was protected expression under the First Amendment, and that university officials violated his free speech rights by disciplining him over it. The lawsuit also alleges that university officials used the incident as pretext to retaliate against Olivares Gutierrez for prior unfavorable coverage of UTD.
“The suspension is designed to chill his speech, to make him think twice before engaging in journalism UTD may disfavor,” the filing reads. “It is the quintessential sword of Damocles.”
In a statement Thursday, UTD officials said “because this is a pending legal matter, we are unable to respond.”
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The filing is the latest development in a yearslong conflict at UTD over the rights and responsibilities of student media that has attracted national attention. After Olivares Gutierrez was removed in 2024, Mercury staffers went on strike. Students eventually formed The Retrograde, an alternative outlet independent of the university, which Olivares Gutierrez now leads.
Related: Inside UT-Dallas’ fight over the student press
At the time, Olivares Gutierrez alleged UTD removed him over his coverage of a campus protest about the war in Gaza that led to 21 arrests. University officials denied his allegation, stating Olivares Gutierrez violated student media bylaws by holding multiple on-campus jobs.
The lawsuit asks a federal judge to determine that UTD violated Olivares Gutierrez’s right to free speech and that university officials’ discipline was retaliation for his prior coverage. It also asks the judge to block the deferred suspension, expunge his disciplinary record and award nominal damages.
“When a student exercises their freedom of speech within the confines of the Constitution, universities should be encouraging the exchange of ideas, especially ones that may or may not cause people to think about their own positions,” said Dallas attorney Griffin Rubin, who is representing Olivares Gutierrez.
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Rubin is a partner at Sbaiti & Company PLLC and a member of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression Legal Network.
The lawsuit names UTD President Prabhas Moghe, former vice president of student affairs Gene Fitch, interim vice president of student affairs Amanda Smith, UT Chancellor John Zerwas and all members of the UT Board of Regents.
Representatives from the UT System did not respond to a request for comment.
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The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.