Georgia · Clayton County · Courts

Eric André and Clayton English Settle Jet Bridge Profiling Lawsuit Against Clayton County Police at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, GA

Lawyers for the comedians and actors Eric André and Clayton English said Tuesday that the two men have settled the federal civil rights case they brought against Clayton County over stops on the jet bridges at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The agreement carries no admission of fault or liability, and no court has ruled on whether the allegations are true.

By Kate Thompson Published Aug. 19, 2026, 12:09 a.m. ET 12 min read Civil settlement · Two newsrooms and the plaintiffs' counsel

What did Eric André and Clayton English settle with Clayton County?

The comedians and actors Eric André and Clayton English have reached a settlement with Clayton County, closing out the federal civil rights case the two men filed in October 2022 over the way Clayton County police approached passengers on jet bridges at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The Associated Press, carried by CBS News Atlanta, reported that the agreement was announced Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026 by lawyers for the pair.

The agreement contains no admission of fault and no admission of liability by the county, the AP reported. No judge or jury has decided whether officers singled anyone out by race, and nothing here is a finding that any officer acted unlawfully.

André and English, who are both Black, argued that the stops were unconstitutional, according to the case page maintained by the Policing Project at NYU School of Law, which represents them. The case was brought against Clayton County and its police department, according to FOX 5 Atlanta and the case name used by the Policing Project. No individual officer is identified in any of the material reviewed for this report, and none is accused of a crime.

In a statement issued with the announcement, André said: It's a major victory that Clayton County has confirmed that it has ended this program and is now taking steps to prevent this type of abuse from happening in the future, as FOX 5 Atlanta reported. English said in the same release: What happened to me was wrong, and I wasn't willing to let it happen to other people, and added: We held Clayton County accountable, and now the County has confirmed that the program is gone, and new protections are in place to protect travelers' rights.

What happened on the jet bridges at Hartsfield-Jackson?

A jet bridge is the enclosed tunnel that carries passengers between an aircraft door and the gate. That is where both encounters took place, according to FOX 5 Atlanta and the Policing Project.

English was traveling from Atlanta to Los Angeles when an officer asked to search his bag, FOX 5 Atlanta reported. He agreed, and later said he had not believed refusing was an option available to him. André was passing through Atlanta on a layover when officers stepped into his path and asked him for his identification and his boarding pass, the station reported.

The AP reported that the two encounters fell about six months apart, and that each man said officers picked him out because he is Black and put questions to him about drugs in front of other travelers. André, in an interview at the time the case was filed, described the experience as dehumanizing and demoralizing.

What did Clayton County agree to do?

Three things run through both published accounts of the terms.

First, the program itself. The county states that it has stopped the practice at issue and does not intend to switch it back on, the AP reported. FOX 5 Atlanta put it in terms of what the department told the other side: Clayton County police informed the plaintiffs' attorneys that the specialized interdiction team working the airport is finished for good.

Second, recording. Officers posted to the airport are to wear body-worn cameras, both outlets reported.

Third, instruction. Those officers are also to receive training on the constitutional boundaries that apply when police approach travelers inside an airport.

Richard Deane, the lead attorney for the two men, tied the outcome to the firm's own program in a statement carried by FOX 5 Atlanta: This settlement is exactly the kind of outcome that Jones Day's Constitutional Policing and Civil Justice Reform Initiative was created to achieve — ending policing practices that unfairly target individuals and securing meaningful and lasting reforms that protect the rights of all, he said.

A Clayton County spokesperson did not immediately respond Tuesday when the AP asked for comment on the agreement, the wire service reported. The county's own account of the terms, in its own words, is not part of either published report.

Is there money in the settlement, and why do the reports disagree?

This is the single point where the two newsrooms do not tell the same story.

The AP reported that county commissioners signed off on $30,000, to be divided evenly between the two men, and attributed that figure to minutes from the board's Aug. 4 meeting. That is a county record the wire service read, not a number the plaintiffs put out.

FOX 5 Atlanta, whose report is built on the press release from the Policing Project, wrote that specific financial terms were not disclosed and that whether the deal carries any payment at all is unclear. Nothing in the station's account contradicts the AP; it simply reflects a document that leaves the money out.

So the dollar figure on this page has one origin: the AP's reading of Clayton County board minutes. The plaintiffs' announcement does not contain it.

What did the lawsuit say the jet bridge stops produced?

The numbers below come from the complaint as the AP described it. They are the plaintiffs' allegations about the program, not agreed facts, and the county has conceded nothing.

Between Aug. 30, 2020 and April 30, 2021 the complaint counted 402 stops on the jet bridges. Race was recorded for 378 of them. Of that 378, 211 were Black passengers, or 56 percent, and 258 were people of color, or 68 percent.

Against that count of stops, the drug results were three. One passenger had roughly 10 grams of drugs. Another had 26 grams of what the AP described as suspected THC gummies. A third had six prescription pills and no prescription for them. Charges followed in the first and third of those cases only.

The cash results were larger. The same 402 stops yielded more than $1 million in cash and money orders taken from 25 passengers. All but one of those 25 were permitted to keep traveling, and only two were charged with anything — the two who also had drugs on them. Eight of the 25 fought the seizures, and in each of those eight cases Clayton County police settled and returned much of what had been taken.

The county's stated reason for running the program was to disrupt drug trafficking. The lawsuit's argument, as the AP summarized it, was that drugs turned up rarely, prosecutions almost never followed, and the seized cash functioned as a revenue stream for the department.

What does the Policing Project say about who was stopped?

The Policing Project's case page sets the 56 percent share of stops involving Black passengers against its estimate that roughly 8 percent of airline passengers are Black, and argues from that gap that the pattern is not explainable by chance.

The Policing Project is counsel to André and English. It is a party's advocate, and its characterization of the statistics is an argument made on behalf of clients, not an independent analysis.

How did the case reach the Eleventh Circuit?

The case did not move in a straight line. A federal district judge granted the defendants' motion to dismiss on Sept. 5, 2023, according to the document list on the Policing Project's case page; FOX 5 Atlanta dates the dismissal to September 2023 without the day.

Counsel took it up in January 2024. In August 2025, a unanimous panel of the Eleventh Circuit undid part of that dismissal and put the Fourth Amendment claims back in play, both FOX 5 Atlanta and the Policing Project report.

The panel's language, as FOX 5 Atlanta quoted it, was that the two men plausibly alleged that Clayton County subjected them to unreasonable searches and seizures. The judges pointed to allegations that officers stood in the men's way, kept hold of their identification and boarding passes, and did not tell them they could walk off.

The word doing the work there is plausibly. An appeals court reviewing a dismissal asks whether a complaint states a claim that may go forward, not whether the claim is correct. That question was never answered, because the parties settled first.

Who filed briefs supporting Eric André and Clayton English?

Friend-of-the-court briefs came in from two directions, according to FOX 5 Atlanta and the document list on the Policing Project's page.

From entertainment: Tyler Perry, Jamie Foxx, Taraji P. Henson, Sterling K. Brown and Jean Elie.

From organizations and specialists: the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Cato Institute, the Institute for Justice, a group of current and former law enforcement officials, and a group of empirical legal scholars.

Who represented the two comedians?

The Policing Project at NYU School of Law brought the case with pro bono help from three firms: Jones Day, Lawrence & Bundy and Canfield Law LLC.

Lead counsel is Richard Deane, a retired Jones Day partner, whom FOX 5 Atlanta identifies as Rick Deane. Allegra Lawrence-Hardy of Lawrence & Bundy is identified by the Associated Press as one of André's attorneys, and Barry Friedman of the Policing Project appears in the case page's press-conference photograph.

An AP file photograph credited to Kate Brumback shows André at a press event held in Atlanta on Oct. 11, 2022, alongside Lawrence-Hardy and Deane.

Who investigates this, and what is a civil settlement not?

Nobody investigated it in the criminal sense. This was a civil action in federal court, brought by two private plaintiffs against a county government and its police department. There is no district attorney in the story, no grand jury, and no state agency reviewing anyone's conduct. Nobody has been arrested and nobody has been charged.

A civil settlement is an agreement to stop litigating. The parties trade terms and the case ends. What a settlement is not is a verdict: it establishes no facts, assigns no blame, and creates no precedent about what happened on those two jet bridges. Here the county expressly declined to accept fault or liability, so even the payment the AP describes carries no concession attached to it.

The one judicial ruling in the record cuts narrower than it may appear. The Eleventh Circuit decided that the complaint could survive dismissal. It did not weigh evidence, hear witnesses or determine what officers did.

Where do the two source accounts differ?

Two independent newsrooms carried this, plus a primary document from the plaintiffs' own lawyers.

FOX 5 Atlanta produced its own report, credited to its digital team and drawing on a Policing Project press release and the station's earlier coverage of the case. It is the only one of the three to carry the fuller English statement and the Deane statement, and it is the source for the dates of both stops and for the detail of what officers did in each.

The AP report, published through CBS News Atlanta, is the only one carrying the lawsuit's detailed stop-by-stop figures, the seizure totals, the board minutes and the county's non-response. Atlanta News First ran the same AP copy; that is the identical wire story under a different masthead, and it is not counted here as separate corroboration.

The clearest divergence is money, covered above: a specific $30,000 figure from county board minutes in the AP account, versus undisclosed financial terms in the station's account built on the plaintiffs' release. There is a softer difference in how the end of the program is described — the AP frames it as the county saying it has ended the practice and will not restart it, while FOX 5 Atlanta frames it as what the department communicated to opposing counsel about the interdiction team. Neither framing is a court order.

This story is part of The Local Alert's ongoing Clayton County, GA coverage.

What we don't know yet

Frequently asked questions

Did Eric André and Clayton English settle their lawsuit against Clayton County?
Yes. The Associated Press, carried by CBS News Atlanta, reported that the settlement agreement was announced Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026 by the pair's lawyers. It resolves the federal civil rights lawsuit the two comedians filed in October 2022 over stops on jet bridges at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Did Clayton County admit fault or liability?
No. The Associated Press reported that the agreement contains no admission of fault or liability. Nothing in the settlement is a finding by any court that racial profiling took place or that any officer broke the law, and no officer has been accused of a crime.

How much money is Clayton County paying Eric André and Clayton English?
The two published accounts do not line up. The Associated Press reported that the county Board of Commissioners authorized a payment of 30,000 dollars, split evenly between the two men, citing minutes from the board's Aug. 4 meeting. FOX 5 Atlanta, working from the press release issued by the plaintiffs' lawyers, reported that specific financial terms were not disclosed and that it is unclear whether any payout is included. The dollar figure comes from the AP's reading of county board minutes, not from the plaintiffs' announcement.

What was the jet bridge program at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport?
A Clayton County police interdiction effort in which officers approached passengers on jet bridges, the narrow tunnels that connect an aircraft to the gate. The Associated Press reported that the stated purpose was to fight drug trafficking, and that the lawsuit contended drugs were rarely found, charges seldom followed, and seized cash amounted to a financial windfall for the department.

When were Eric André and Clayton English stopped at the Atlanta airport?
About six months apart. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that Clayton English was stopped on Oct. 30, 2020, on a flight bound for Los Angeles, and that Eric André was stopped on April 21, 2021, while changing planes in Atlanta.

What did the lawsuit say about who was stopped on the jet bridges?
The Associated Press reported the lawsuit's figures for the period from Aug. 30, 2020 to April 30, 2021: 402 jet bridge stops, race listed for 378 of them, 211 of those 378 involving Black passengers, and 258 stops involving people of color.

How much did the 402 jet bridge stops turn up?
The Associated Press reported three drug seizures across the 402 stops: roughly 10 grams of drugs from one traveler, 26 grams of what the AP described as suspected THC gummies from a second, and six prescription pills carried without a prescription by a third. Charges followed in the first and third of those cases only. The same stops produced more than 1 million dollars in cash and money orders taken from 25 passengers.

What happened to the money Clayton County police seized from those passengers?
The Associated Press reported that all but one of the 25 passengers were allowed to continue traveling and that only two were charged, the same two who also had drugs. Eight of the 25 contested the seizures; the department resolved every one of those eight and returned much of what it had taken.

What did the Eleventh Circuit decide in the Eric André and Clayton English case?
A federal district judge granted the defendants' motion to dismiss on Sept. 5, 2023. Counsel appealed in January 2024, and in August 2025 a unanimous Eleventh Circuit panel reversed part of that dismissal and reinstated the Fourth Amendment claims. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that the panel reinstated the two men's Fourth Amendment claims after finding they had been adequately pleaded. That is a ruling about whether the case could proceed, not a finding that the allegations are true.

What does Clayton County have to do under the settlement?
FOX 5 Atlanta and the Associated Press reported that the county agreed to require officers assigned to the airport to wear body-worn cameras and to take training on the constitutional limits of police encounters at airports. The Associated Press reported that the county says it has ended the program and has no intention to reactivate it, and FOX 5 Atlanta reported that Clayton County police told the plaintiffs' attorneys the specialized interdiction team at Hartsfield-Jackson is permanently finished.

Did Clayton County comment on the settlement?
Not by press time. The Associated Press reported that a Clayton County spokesperson did not immediately respond Tuesday to its request for comment on the settlement agreement.

Who represented Eric André and Clayton English?
The Policing Project at NYU School of Law, with pro bono counsel from Jones Day, Lawrence and Bundy, and Canfield Law LLC. Lead counsel Richard Deane is a retired Jones Day partner. Allegra Lawrence-Hardy of Lawrence and Bundy is named by the Associated Press as one of André's attorneys. The Policing Project is counsel for the plaintiffs and an interested party, not a neutral observer.