Policing Project helps reinstate racial profiling case brought by entertainers
Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law Barry Friedman
On August 15, a three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that a civil rights lawsuit in which NYU Law’s Policing Project represents comedians Eric André and Clayton English can move forward. The suit, filed against Clayton County, Georgia, and several individual police officers, had previously been dismissed by a lower court. Law firms Jones Day, Krevolin & Horst, and Canfield Law are co-counsel with the Policing Project.
According to the suit, the two entertainers, who are both Black, were stopped and questioned in separate incidents in 2020 and 2021 at the Atlanta airport by Clayton County police officers, who were reportedly seeking to intercept illegal drugs. The plaintiffs contend that the police intentionally selected Black passengers for screening, rather than stopping passengers at random. According to data cited by the Policing Project, 56 percent of passengers stopped by police at the Atlanta airport had their race recorded as Black, while only 8 percent of domestic passengers traveling through the airport are Black.
The case, André v. Clayton County, was first filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in October 2022 and dismissed in September 2023. In January 2024, the Policing Project and its partners appealed the dismissal.
In an opinion authored by Judge Elizabeth Branch, the panel for the Eleventh Circuit ruled unanimously that the suit plausibly alleges “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.”
"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," says Policing Project faculty director Barry Friedman, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law, who made oral arguments in support of the appeal. “We are glad that the federal court of appeals has reaffirmed that principle and recognized the validity of our clients' Fourth Amendment claims. We look forward to returning to the trial court to learn even more about the Clayton County Police Department's unconstitutional jet bridge stop program."
The court upheld the dismissal of the plaintiffs’ Equal Protection Clause claim, writing that they did not plausibly allege that any of the individual defendants acted with a discriminatory purpose.
A number of amicus briefs were filed in support of the plaintiffs by organizations such as the Institute for Justice; the Cato Institute, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; a group of actors and entertainers that included Tyler Perry, Jamie Foxx, Taraji P. Henson, Sterling K. Brown, and Jean Elie; and current and former law enforcement officials.