ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN — University of Michigan student Josiah Walker filed a lawsuit accusing the university and private investigators of violating his constitutional rights through an undercover surveillance operation conducted in response to his protests of Israel's war in Gaza. The complaint alleges the university and investigators conspired to intimidate, terrorize and retaliate against Walker in 2024 and 2025 by falsifying police reports, manipulating police documents, illegally stalking and assaulting him, seizing his property and pursuing malicious prosecutions.

The lawsuit alleges violations of Walker's First Amendment free speech rights and of his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment privacy rights, including through police manipulating and exaggerating reports to gain access to his Google Drive and email. It also claims that none of the private investigators were authorized under Michigan law to conduct undercover surveillance. The filing requests monetary damages and punitive measures against the university and the private investigators.

According to court filings, the university in June 2025 hired dozens of undercover investigators to surveil pro-Palestinian students by trailing them on and off campus, recording them and eavesdropping on their conversations. Video recorded by Walker showed one investigator driving a car at him, forcing him to jump out of the way, and another faking disabilities and falsely accusing him of attempted robbery. Three days after the operation was publicly reported, the university fired a private investigation firm and apologized for some of the investigators' actions.

The trespassing charges stemmed from an incident following a May 2024 raid on a campus Gaza encampment in which Walker participated. The lawsuit states that after Walker contacted university police to retrieve seized religious items, an officer issued him a trespass warning at the station. Body-camera footage allegedly shows officers plotting to arrest him at a September 2024 campus festival, where video evidence shows officers tackling, beating and arresting him. He spent the night in county jail and was charged with resisting arrest and trespassing.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel brought two trespassing charges against Walker in 2024 but later dropped them after media reports revealed her connections to university leadership and defense attorneys called for a hearing into potential pro-Israel bias. The lawsuit also contends the university has not used the same surveillance tactics against protests related to the Vietnam War, reproductive justice, or support for Israel, and asserts that only those advocating for Palestinian rights were surveilled.

"We want the university and City Shield to know they can't undertake these measures simply because they don't like the speech being made," said Amy Doukoure. Doukoure said Walker modified his entire way of life and was always in a heightened state of anxiety, and always hyper-vigilant and alert in a way that no college student should be when just going to class or work.