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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\u2019s guest column.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Azul Sordo\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
A student journalist at the University of Texas at Dallas<\/a> is suing university officials, arguing they violated his free speech rights<\/a> by disciplining him over a disclaimer he attached to a student\u2019s guest column.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2024, Gregorio Olivares Gutierrez, then editor-in-chief of UTD\u2019s student-run paper The Mercury, added a note to a student\u2019s letter to the editor about antisemitism and the Israel-Palestine conflict clarifying that it was an opinion piece and not a news article.\u00a0<\/p>\n Olivares Gutierrez said he repeatedly asked the writer, president of UTD\u2019s 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 \u201cthe presentation of opinion as fact within this article\u2026does not meet the journalistic standards of The Mercury.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Related: These Texas universities ranked among nation’s worst for campus free speech<\/a><\/p>\n 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 \u201cordinary editorial suggestions\u201d and put him on deferred suspension.\u00a0Olivares Gutierrez is allowed to remain enrolled at UTD but can be suspended if he is found in violation of any other rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe suspension is designed to chill his speech, to make him think twice before engaging in journalism UTD may disfavor,\u201d the filing reads. \u201cIt is the quintessential sword of Damocles.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In a statement Thursday, UTD officials said \u201cbecause this is a pending legal matter, we are unable to respond.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The filing is the latest development in a yearslong conflict at UTD <\/a>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. <\/a>Students eventually formed The Retrograde, an alternative outlet independent of the university, which Olivares Gutierrez now leads.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n