The Dartmouth Review v. Dartmouth College

After The Dartmouth Review (plaintiff), a student newspaper, published criticism of a Black professor, Dartmouth College (defendant) disciplined the paper's white student staffers, who then sued, alleging Dartmouth discriminated against them for being white. Their lengthy complaint alleged Dartmouth officials rushed to defend the professor, encouraged Black student protests, publicly called the staffers racist, ran an unfair disciplinary process, and punished them more harshly than Black students. The district court dismissed the complaint under Rule 12(b)(6) for failing to state a claim, and the staffers appealed.