Court rejects state’s appeal in KKK highway cleanup case

Although there was no cost to participate in Georgia’s Adopt-A-Highway program, interested parties were required to complete an application process with the Department of Transportation.

Georgia’s “Adopt-A-Highway” program was created in 1989 and is administered by the DOT.

The Georgia Department of Transportation’s Adopt-A-Highway program was introduced as part of an ongoing effort to “Keep Georgia Beautiful”. In exchange, the Department of Transportation posts a sponsorship sign along the road with the program logo and the volunteer group’s name. The transportation department denied the request for two reasons.

The DOT, however, denied their application, citing the organization’s “potential for social unrest”, stemming from the group’s “long-rooted history of civil disturbance”.

During fiscal year 2011, 173 active organizations (primarily civic groups and businesses) participated in the program, covering 200 miles of Georgia roads. As the law stands now if Georgia reopened applications to the program, it would have to accept the Klan’s.

On Sept. 13, 2012, the KKK sued the state in Fulton County Superior Court, naming the DOT, its commissioner and the governor as defendants.

The KKK’s participation in Georgia’s Adopt-A-Highway and the organization’s constitutional rights were mentioned briefly in the Supreme Court’s ruling. They filed a writ of mandamus in an effort to force GDOT to approve their application.

The Georgia Department of Transportation fought back, saying that move was prohibited under sovereign immunity, which shields state agencies from being sued. On May 31, 2013, the trial judge dismissed the Klan’s mandamus claim but allowed the claims for a permanent injunction and the declaratory judgment to go forward. Dept. of Natural Resources v. Center for a Sustainable Coast, Inc., which stated that sovereign immunity bars claims for injunctive relief.

“The fundamental right to free speech is not limited to only those we agree with or groups that are inoffensive”.

The American Civil Liberties Union – a civil rights legal group that leans left but has argued for the rights of groups such as the National Socialist Party (Nazi) of America in the past – filed a legal challenge on the behalf of the International Keystone Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. On Tuesday, the high court voted unanimously in favor of rejecting the appeal.

Due to the fact that the state did not file the proper application with their appeal, the high court simply does not have jurisdiction over the controversial case.