Comedians Eric André and Clayton English settle lawsuit over drug search program at Atlanta airport

Comedians Eric André and Clayton English have settled a lawsuit over a police program at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The program allegedly employed racial profiling and coercive searches on Black passengers, particularly before they boarded their flights. The lawsuit, filed in October 2022, alleged that both men were unfairly stopped and questioned by Clayton County police about drugs during separate incidents about six months apart.

The settlement, announced on Tuesday, does not admit fault or liability but confirms that the county has ended the program and has no plans to restart it. Both comedians claimed they were singled out due to their race and experienced dehumanizing and demoralizing encounters. The county agreed to pay each comedian $15,000 as part of the settlement, with the money to be used to fund body-worn cameras for police officers assigned to the airport and to provide training on constitutional limits regarding police encounters at airports.