ANN ARBOR — In the latest legal challenge arising from the University of Michigan’s response to pro-Palestinian student activism, a Black Muslim student has filed a federal lawsuit accusing university officials of collaborating with a private security firm to conduct a campaign of surveillance, harassment and retaliation because of his advocacy for Palestinian rights.

The plaintiff, Josiah Walker, is one of five students interviewed by the Guardian who said they were followed, recorded and monitored by undercover investigators employed by City Shield, a Detroit-based private security company hired by the University of Michigan during the wave of campus protests against Israel’s war on Gaza in 2024 and 2025.

Lawsuit accuses university officials and private security firm of targeting student because of his political views, race and religion

The lawsuit follows a Guardian investigative report that revealed the university spent nearly $800,000 on private security contractors who deployed plainclothes investigators to monitor students involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

According to the report, surveillance efforts focused on leaders and members of student organizations, including Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), one of the most active groups advocating for Palestinian rights on campus.

The revelations prompted the university to discontinue its contracts with outside security firms, although legal and political fallout from the surveillance program continues to unfold.

“A profound institutional betrayal”

In a statement released after filing the lawsuit, Walker argued that public universities should protect, rather than punish, political expression.

“Public universities ought to be places where people can be critical of foreign governments without facing undue harms to the integrity of their persons, interests, and property,” Walker said in a statement Thursday.

“The University of Michigan’s decision to mobilize public and private assets to suppress my viewpoints was dangerously irresponsible and constitutes a profound act of institutional betrayal that must be rectified.”

Walker was among the student activists involved in the highly visible pro-Palestinian encampment established on the Ann Arbor campus in 2024. University officials ultimately ordered campus police to dismantle the encampment and remove demonstrators, leading to multiple arrests and disciplinary actions against participants.

Lawsuit alleges discrimination and retaliation

The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Michigan) and the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice filed the complaint.

The lawsuit alleges that Walker was targeted because of his advocacy for Palestinian rights and subjected to discrimination based on both his race and religion.

“The defendants targeted Walker because of the content of his speech and the viewpoints he expressed, as well as because of his racial and religious identity,” the complaint states.

According to the filing, Walker was subjected to “a deliberate and unlawful pattern of harassment and retaliation.”

The lawsuit argues that, in response to his opposition to what it describes as Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, university officials carried out a series of punitive actions intended to intimidate and punish him.

Allegations of surveillance, force and seizure

Among the allegations detailed in the complaint are claims that university officials and their agents:

• Subjected Walker to prolonged surveillance, monitoring and harassment through private security contractors.
• Detained him without reasonable suspicion that he had committed a crime.
• Physically assaulted him and used excessive force against him on multiple occasions.
• Seized his personal property and religious items without due process or probable cause.
• Initiated and carried out retaliatory employment-related actions without affording him due process protections.
• Coordinated and fabricated exaggerated, misleading and inflammatory police reports in an effort to portray him as a criminal, allegations that were later used to obtain search warrants targeting Walker’s private electronic communications and stored digital data.

CAIR: University violated constitutional rights

Amy Doukoure, the lead staff attorney for the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), said the case raises serious constitutional concerns regarding free speech and equal protection rights at public universities.

“Public universities do not get to celebrate free speech when it is convenient and then unleash police, private surveillance contractors, trespass bans, criminal charges, and employment blacklists when students advocate for Palestinian human rights,” Doukoure said in a statement.

She argued that public institutions are obligated to uphold constitutional protections regardless of political pressure.

“Public universities are bound by the First and Fourteenth Amendments, not by political pressure or viewpoint favoritism,” she said.

“When a public university uses state authority and private security personnel to surveil, punish and intimidate a Black Muslim student because he expressed constitutionally protected views, that is not campus safety. It is retaliation, and it violates the Constitution.”

The lawsuit adds to a growing number of legal challenges facing universities across the country over their handling of pro-Palestinian activism and campus protests during the war in Gaza, as civil rights groups increasingly scrutinize the use of surveillance, disciplinary actions and law enforcement tactics against student demonstrators.