Student sues University of Michigan over alleged surveillance tied to Gaza protests

The charges stem from an incident following a May 2024 raid on a U-M Gaza encampment in which Walker participated, when Walker contacted university police about retrieving seized religious items, like prayer mats.

The suit claims Walker was repeatedly assured by police that he would not face consequences for retrieving the items. But at the station, a U-M officer “abruptly stormed in” and wrote Walker a trespass warning, according to the suit. The university ignored Walker’s requests for a copy of the trespassing report, which the lawsuit alleges was falsified.

The complaint also details an incident in which bodycam footage allegedly reveals officers plotting to arrest Walker for trespassing at a September 2024 campus festival, even if he was doing nothing wrong.

At the festival, officers tackled, beat and arrested Walker, video shows. They charged Walker with resisting arrest and trespassing.

“[This] demonstrates a deliberate conspiracy to violate his constitutional rights, punish him for protected speech, and assert state power over student dissent,” the lawsuit states.

Walker spent the night in county jail, and the suit alleges the arrest represents one of several instances of false imprisonment. Nessel did not file the resisting charge, and dropped the trespassing charges after the Guardian exposed her connections to U-M leadership who encouraged her to prosecute students, and defense attorneys called for a hearing into potential pro-Israel bias in her investigation.

Nessel’s dismissal “confirmed what had always been apparent: the case lacked legal merit, was driven by political retaliation, and could not withstand judicial scrutiny”, the lawsuit states.

The suit is one in a wave of legal actions filed by students around the US who allege that their civil rights were violated during universities’ crackdown on campus Gaza protests after 7 October 2023. The University of Maryland and University of California regent have paid damages in two of the cases, while Columbia University was ordered to reverse punishments.

Walker’s suit also alleges the university fabricated accusations to gain access to his email after, in 2025, Walker video recorded an investigator who was tailing him around Ann Arbor at night. The investigator allegedly claimed Walker had “assaulted” him with the camera flash and damaged his eyes.

The suit says assault and injury claims were made “to manufacture probable cause” for warrants to access Walker’s Google account, which contained sensitive personal, religious, academic and political materials, as well as privileged attorney-client information. Walker was not ultimately charged with assault.

The lawsuit contends that U-M has never used the same tactics against other protest movements, like those against the Vietnam War, or in support of reproductive justice or Israel. Only those advocating for Palestinian rights have been surveilled.

In one instance, the suit claims, body camera footage shows U-M police acknowledging pro-Israel protesters were violating the law and school rules. But police only dispersed and arrested pro-Palestinian counterprotesters, the suit alleges.

The lawsuit asks for monetary damages and punitive measures for the university and private investigators.

“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,” Doukoure said.