A UT Dallas senior who was removed as editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Mercury, has sued several members of the UT System Board of Regents and three UTD administrators in federal court, arguing they violated his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
Gregorio Olivares Gutierrez told KERA the case grew out of an opinion piece. In the summer of 2024, Jade Steinberg, who led the campus Hillel chapter, submitted a letter to the editor titled "Campus antisemitism." It arrived during protests at UTD and other campuses over Israel's actions in Gaza.
Olivares Gutierrez said he asked the writer to back up several claims with sources and, when that did not happen after a second round of edits, chose to run the piece anyway rather than reject it. The Mercury published the letter on Aug. 19, 2024, with an editor's disclaimer saying it was the author's opinion and that presenting opinion as fact did not meet the paper's standards.
The complaint and the discipline
According to KERA, Steinberg filed a discrimination complaint against Olivares Gutierrez with UTD's compliance office the next day, and the university removed him as editor on Sept. 13. His lawsuit argues the complaint was a "pretext" to punish him for earlier reporting that, in the suit's words, cast "UTD in an unfavorable light."
Other Mercury staffers who walked out in protest were removed from the paper as well, KERA reported. The group went on to launch The Retrograde, an independent nonprofit newspaper that covers the campus.
A university investigation later found that Olivares Gutierrez had discriminated against Steinberg by publishing the disclaimer, and he was given a two-year deferred suspension. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has written to UTD asking it to drop that sanction.