You know that part where you get off a plane and a couple of officers immediately ask you which drugs you’re trafficking? No? Eric André does, and has since felt a moral calling to do what he can to fight the “consensual encounter” in an Atlanta airport that felt a lot more like racial profiling. You can listen to his own account of the encounter below:
Thankfully, he’s going to set a second chance at reducing the likelihood that Atlanta airport patrons aren’t similarly harassed. NBC News has coverage:
A federal appeals court decided to reverse the dismissal of a lawsuit comedians Eric André and Clayton English filed in 2022 claiming their Fourth Amendment rights were violated.
…
The district court dismissed their lawsuit in 2023, citing the plaintiffs’ “failure to plausibly allege any constitutional violations,” and all defendants, including Clayton County and the police department’s chief, were protected by immunity. But the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in its opinion that it found that André and English “plausibly alleged that Clayton County subjected them to unreasonable searches and seizures” and reversed the dismissal “after careful review.”
While this isn’t a complete victory — the court found that the individual officers were protected by qualified immunity — a successful suit against Clayton County could still get rid of the “consensual encounters” that just happened to pull aside Black passengers 54% of the time despite Black passengers only making up 8% of the national flying public. That said, kudos to whatever police PR person decided to call profiling flight departees “consensual encounters” instead of “flight stop and frisk” or “harassing anyone who looks like they have money.”
It is hard to see the usefulness of the program considering that flyers have to go through TSA before they board the flight — any drugs or illegal items should have been caught in the screening process. Best of luck to Eric André and Clayton English.
Eric André Lawsuit Over Drug Search At Atlanta Airport Revived By Appeals Court [NBC News]
Earlier: Eric André Takes A Break From Slapstick To Stop Atlanta PD From Being A Flight Risk
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
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