The Georgia Court of Appeals will soon decide a rather prickly question: Whether the Ku Klux Klan can "adopt" a stretch of highway in north Georgia.
The white supremacy group sought in 2012 to receive recognition from the state for cleaning litter from a one-mile span of Route 515 near the North Carolina state line. After Georgia transportation officials rejected the request to join the adopt-a-highway program, the KKK chapter sued.
Their case, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, will be the focus of oral arguments at the appellate court on Thursday morning. The chapter claims the state's rejection violated the group's free speech rights. The state has cited public safety concerns and contended that the program is aimed at "civic-minded organizations" - not hate groups.
Georgia officials are mindful of an irksome precedent. The state of Missouri blocked a similar request from the Klan in 1997, but lost their fight after a lengthy legal battle on free speech grounds. Missouri lawmakers tried to get the last laugh. They renamed that stretch of pavement after a rabbi who fled Nazi Germany and became a prominent civil rights advocate in the U.S.
The timing of Georgia's case, though, presents other problems. It comes amid renewed calls to bring down remnants of the Confederacy after the shooting deaths of nine black worshippers by a gunman suspected of wanting to incite a race war. Georgia officials don't want to be put in a position where they're forced to hoist a hate group's sign even as neighboring South Carolina is poised to tear down its Rebel flag.
Consider the kicker to the state's legal brief:
"Erecting an [Adopt-A-Highway] Program sign with the KKK’s name on it would have the effect of erecting a sign announcing that 'the State of Georgia has declared this area Klan Country,'" it read. "Such a statement is absurd and would date this state back decades."
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