32
Opinion of the Court
which fails to state a claim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) may nonetheless have "an arguable basis in law" precluding dismissal under § 1915(d). 490 U. S., at 328- 329. In so holding, we observed that the in forma pauperis statute, unlike Rule 12(b)(6), "accords judges not only the authority to dismiss a claim based on an indisputably meritless legal theory, but also the unusual power to pierce the veil of the complaint's factual allegations and dismiss those claims whose factual contentions are clearly baseless." Id., at 327. "Examples of the latter class," we said, "are claims describing fantastic or delusional scenarios, claims with which federal district judges are all too familiar." Id., at 328.
Petitioners contend that the decision below is inconsistent with the "unusual" dismissal power we recognized in Neitzke, and we agree. Contrary to the Ninth Circuit's assumption, our statement in Neitzke that § 1915(d) gives courts the authority to "pierce the veil of the complaint's factual allegations" means that a court is not bound, as it usually is when making a determination based solely on the pleadings, to accept without question the truth of the plaintiff's allegations. We therefore reject the notion that a court must accept as "having an arguable basis in fact," id., at 325, all allegations that cannot be rebutted by judicially noticeable facts. At the same time, in order to respect the congressional goal of "assur[ing] equality of consideration for all litigants," Coppedge v. United States, 369 U. S. 438, 447 (1962), this initial assessment of the in forma pauperis plaintiff's factual allegations must be weighted in favor of the plaintiff. In other words, the § 1915(d) frivolousness determination, frequently made sua sponte before the defendant has even been asked to file an answer, cannot serve as a factfinding process for the resolution of disputed facts.
As we stated in Neitzke, a court may dismiss a claim as factually frivolous only if the facts alleged are "clearly baseless," 490 U. S., at 327, a category encompassing allegations
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