Eric André and Clayton English scored a big-time authorized victory in Atlanta after a federal appeals courtroom dominated their racial discrimination lawsuit in opposition to Clayton County police might proceed, reversing a decrease courtroom’s dismissal.

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 44-page opinion on August 16 that reinstated the civil rights case, which claims both comedians were unlawfully stopped and questioned at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport by officers from the county’s Airport Interdiction Unit.

The courtroom discovered their allegations “plausibly allege violations of the Fourth Amendment.”

The ruling, authored by Judge Elizabeth L. Branch — a Trump appointee — acknowledged that “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.”

André and English have been livid after they have been individually stopped on jet bridges with out suspicion of wrongdoing and interrogated about drug possession.

They said the stops were racially motivated and a part of a broader sample of unconstitutional conduct by regulation enforcement.

“I was flying back from South Carolina and connecting in Atlanta to fly home from a work trip. I was filming Righteous Gemstones, the HBO show. And Atlanta was my connecting flight. So when I got to the gate, the gate agent ripped my ticket, everything was going as normal. I’m boarding with the business class passengers, all white people in front of me and behind me on this little narrow, claustrophobic, awkward jet bridge,” Eric André mentioned.

“These two cops kind of, like, appeared out of nowhere, singled me out. And they were like, we have reason to believe that there’s drugs going through this airport. Are you selling drugs? Are you buying drugs? Are you on crystal meth? Are you on heroin, cocaine? And clearly, it was racial profiling and discrimination,” André added.

Data obtained by their authorized workforce reveals that in the course of the eight months surrounding their stops, 402 vacationers have been detained by the Airport Interdiction Unit.

Of these whose race was recorded, 56 % have been Black — regardless of Black passengers making up solely 8 % of home vacationers on the airport. Statisticians estimate the possibility of that disparity taking place randomly is lower than one in 100 trillion.

The courtroom sided with the plaintiffs on their Fourth Amendment claims however upheld the dismissal of their Equal Protection declare, saying the grievance didn’t sufficiently allege that any officer acted with discriminatory intent.

Barry Friedman, Faculty Director of the Policing Project at NYU Law, argued the case earlier than the courtroom.

“In the United States, you may not be seized or have your belongings searched unless you truly voluntarily consent or the government has at least reasonable suspicion to justify the seizure. Never has that basic constitutional principle been more important,” Friedman mentioned. “We are glad that the federal court of appeals has reaffirmed that principle and recognized the validity of our clients’ Fourth Amendment claims.”

The lawsuit, initially filed in October 2022, was dismissed by a district courtroom in September 2023.

André and English appealed the choice in January 2024. The case is now headed again to trial courtroom, the place additional proof in regards to the police program is anticipated to be revealed.

The case has drawn assist from entertainers together with Tyler Perry, Jamie Foxx and Taraji P. Henson, in addition to authorized organizations just like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Cato Institute.

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