KKK tries to adopt a highway in Georgia: Is that protected free speech?

The American Civil Liberties Union is defending the KKK's right join Georgia's Adopt-A-Highway program. The case now goes to the Georgia Supreme Court. 

|
(AP Photo/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Curtis Compton)
From left, Knighthawk, April Hanson and her husband Harley Hanson, members of the International Keystone Knights Realm of Georgia, perform a traditional Klan salute along the portion of highway they want to adopt allowing them to put up a sign and do litter removal near Blairsville, Ga., June 10, 2012. The Ku Klux Klan group wants to join Georgia's "Adopt-A-Highway" program for litter removal. The state denied their application. decisions on the application.

A Ku Klux Klan group's First Amendment rights will be determined by Georgia's highest court after the state's Court of Appeals says it doesn't have jurisdiction over whether the state violated those rights by rejecting it from a highway cleanup program.

The order was issued Tuesday, transferring the case from the Court of Appeals to the state Supreme Court.

The International Keystone Knights of the Ku Klux Klan filed an application to "adopt" a mile of road in 2012, which the Georgia Department of Transportation denied. In its rejection letter, the department stated "the impact of erecting a sign naming an organization which has long rooted history of civil disturbance would cause a significant public concern."

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation, a group committed to protecting civil liberties, came to the defense of the KKK, one of the United State's oldest and most infamous hate groups, in an unexpected alliance inspired by the First Amendment.

The ACLU swiftly filed a lawsuit on the Klan's behalf, on the grounds that the group's right to free speech right was violated by the state's denial.

“Many people may find the views expressed by groups like the IKKK abhorrent. But there is nothing American about taking away the right to express those views or undertake a project, such as notification of sponsorship of a highway cleanup, which is otherwise open to all,” said Chara Fisher Jackson, legal director of the ACLU Foundation of Georgia, in a statement at the time of the initial lawsuit. “Freedom of speech is at the very core of American values.”

A judge ruled in the ACLU's favor in November 2014, and the state of Georgia appealed.

The US Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling back in June that Texas was correct to reject a proposal for license plates that bore a Confederate flag on the grounds that it was offensive to a "significant portion" of the public may provide some legal grounds upon which the KKK's ability to adopt a stretch of Georgia highway might be denied.

As the Georgia transportation officials cited when they rejected the proposal initially: "encountering signage and members of the KKK along a roadway would create a definite distraction to motorists."

If such a distraction would offend – and whether or not such offense is constitutional – is now up to Georgia's Supreme Court.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to KKK tries to adopt a highway in Georgia: Is that protected free speech?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2015/1111/KKK-tries-to-adopt-a-highway-in-Georgia-Is-that-protected-free-speech
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe