Comedians' lawsuit over arrests at Atlanta airport can continue, judges rule

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Eric André attends the final season premiere of HBO Original Series' "The Righteous Gemstones" at Paramount Theatre on March 05, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Maya Dehlin Spach/WireImage)

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. - A federal appeals court has ruled that part of comedians Eric Andre and Clayton English's civil rights lawsuit against the Clayton County Police Department can go forward.

The ruling reverses a previous dismissal of the lawsuit by a district court in 2023. 

The backstory:

According to the lawsuit, André had finished a shoot for HBO’s "The Righteous Gemstones" and was traveling from Charleston, South Carolina, to his home in Los Angeles on April 21, 2021, when he was stopped after a layover in Atlanta.

During the layover, the comedian was stopped by investigators as they entered the jet bridge and asked to hand over his boarding pass and identification.

ORIGINAL STORY: Comedians sue over drug search program at Atlanta airport

While police say that Andre gave the officers consent to search his bags, he said he did not volunteer and claimed that the search was an act of racial profiling.

English was stopped while flying from Atlanta, where he lives, to Los Angeles for work on Oct. 30, 2020.  The lawsuit claims that English was approached by an officer on the jet bridge. The officer allegedly said he wanted to search English’s bag, and English agreed, saying he did not believe he had a choice.

Dig deeper:

The comedians' lawsuit claims that the Clayton County Police Department has disproportionately targeted Black passengers at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. According to court documents from 2022, Andre and English assert that they were among more than 400 passengers who were stopped by officers from Clayton's specialized Airport Interdiction Unit over an eight-month period.

During this timeframe, the lawsuit contends that over half of the individuals stopped by the officers were Black, raising concerns about the alleged discriminatory practices of the police unit. 

Comedians plan to appeal in Atlanta airport case

Two comedians who claim they were victims of racial profiling at Atlanta's airport say they are going to appeal after their lawsuit was dismissed.

Several prominent figures in the entertainment industry, including Tyler Perry, Jamie Foxx, and Taraji P. Henson, have shown support for Andre and English. These celebrities have filed legal documents in defense of the comedians and others who may have experienced similar issues.

In Sept. 2023, a district court granted the police department's motion to dismiss the case, arguing that the defendants had qualified immunity and that the lawsuit did not "plausibly allege any constitutional violations." Andre and English filed an appeal a few months later.

What they're saying:

In their ruling filed on Friday, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously decided to reverse part of the ruling.

Unlike the district court, the appeals court judges wrote that they found "that plaintiffs plausibly alleged that Clayton County subjected them to unreasonable searches and seizures."

The court agreed with Andre and English that the searches at the airport by police were "not consensual," pointing to the fact that both English and Andre's paths had been blocked by officers, the officers held their IDs and boarding passes, and that the officers "did not inform plaintiffs of the voluntary nature of the questioning or that plaintiffs were free to leave until after officers finished their questioning."

"Plaintiffs plausibly alleged that Clayton County’s drug interdiction program directs the county’s officers to violate passengers’ Fourth Amendment rights by conducting unreasonable seizures of the passengers," the ruling reads.

The judges did not reverse the lower court's ruling that the arrests and searches violated the Equal Protection Clause, finding that the lawsuit failed "to plausibly allege that the defendants in this case acted with a discriminatory purpose."

What's next:

With the ruling, Andre and English's lawsuit against the police department can continue in the District Court at a later date.