The federal court of appeals decided to reverse the denial of a 2022 case brought by comedians Eric Andre and Clayton English, who alleged that their Fourth Amendment rights had been violated.
Andre and English allegedly Clayton County officials stopped them in two separate incidents at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The black celebrities said they were told to hand over their boarding pass and ID and asked if they were carrying illegal drugs.
The pair alleges that officers violated the amendment “to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures,” according to the opinion of the federal appellant’s court, released Friday. They also claimed that officers stopped them based on their race.
Their case was ultimately dismissed by the district court in 2023, saying that the plaintiff “did not claim the violation of the Constitution as plausible,” and all defendants, including the chief of Clayton County and the police department, were protected by immunity. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has said it has found Andre and the English language claimed that they believed “they had put them in an unreasonable search and seizure” and “after careful review.”
The court confirmed the remainder of the district court’s dismissal.
The Clayton County Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. NBC News contacted Andre and the English representative for comments.
Two separate incidents a year apart
According to his and Andre’s 2022 lawsuit, English was working from Atlanta to Los Angeles in 2020 from Atlanta to Los Angeles.
“The officer flashed his badge and asked if he was carrying illegal drugs to English,” the lawsuit said. “English refused to carry illegal drugs. English understood that he could not leave freely and continue his trip while the officers were questioning him.”
The officers stood on both sides of the English language, blocking the path to the plane and asking for the committee’s pass and ID. According to the lawsuit, he handed over because he felt he had no choice but to comply with it. The officer also asked to search for carry-on English.
The officer gave up his English after checking his bag according to the lawsuit.
“Through the encounter, English was worried that if an officer perceived himself as “out of line,” he would not be allowed to fly or reach his destination,” the lawsuit said.
In 2021, Andre traveled to Atlanta from Charleston, South Carolina before heading home to Los Angeles. He was stopped on a jet bridge while trying to board a flight in Atlanta. According to the lawsuit, Andre was stopped at the jet bridge after clearing multiple security points.
The officer also asked the comedian if he was carrying illegal drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine. He was also said to have been asked to hand over his ID and boarding pass, and he believed he could not refuse.
“About five minutes after being questioned while standing on the narrow jet bridge, Andre was told by officers that he could be free to board the plane,” according to the lawsuit.
The stop is part of the Clayton County Police Department’s “Drug Prevention Program” and aims to selectively stop passengers on the jet bridge before they require flights to carry drugs and search for packages. The department claims that the suspension is a random agreement.
Andre and English claim that stops are random but not agreement, and that the Clayton County Police Program specifically targets black passengers and other passengers of colour, according to court opinions.
Police records show that from August 30, 2020 to April 30, 2021 to April 30, 2021, there were 402 jet bridge stops and passenger races were listed at 378 at these stops. According to the Associated Press, 211 of the 378 passengers, or 56%, were black, accounting for 258 stops, or 68%, as stated by the celebrity lawsuit.
Andre called the experience “dehumanization and morale loss.”
“People were caring for me, so when they didn’t do anything wrong, I looked suspicious,” Andre said in an interview when the lawsuit was filed.
Court decision
In its ruling, the federal court of appeals held that the complaint’s forced nature of the defendant’s actions during the suspension of Andre and English, made them feel that they were unable to leave freely, or that they had been “seized” by officers.
English claimed that the officer had stopped him and began asking him questions by saying he could leave until he finished asking him questions,” the court added that he had reached the same conclusion as Andre.
However, the court found that the comedian could argue that Andre and English were “plausible that the officers were acting for discriminatory purposes when they stopped them, claiming that the individual defendants knew the racist complaints or that the county did not claim that the individual defendants had directed the sole passerby to the black passerby.
“For the foregoing reasons, the plaintiff contended that the defendant had violated the fourth amendment right to be released from unreasonable searches or seizures,” the court said. “Individual defendants are entitled to a qualified immunity, but Clayton County does not. Therefore, we reverse the dismissal of the plaintiff’s fourth amendment request against Clayton County. We confirm the dismissal of the plaintiff’s remaining claim.”
