US court: KKK can join ‘Adopt a Highway’ scheme

The Supreme Court in the state of Georgia rejects the authorities’s bid to stop the Ku Klux Klan from taking part in its “Adopt-A-Highway” program, the Wall Street Journal reports.

According to the WSJ, a local KKK chapter called the International Keystone Knights applied in 2012 to join the state-run program, in which “citizen volunteers” to help pick up litter from the side of road. Normally volunteers have their names placed on signs along the part of the highway they have cleared.

The KKK chapter suggested that it adopt a one-mile stretch of a local route, a bid rejected by Georgia’s transportation department, which expressed concerns that “erecting a sign naming an organization which has a long-rooted history of civil disturbance would cause a significant public concern.”

The KKK chapter was backed by Georgia’s ACLU branch, which sued the state on the grounds that the denial of the application violated a “fundamental right to free speech.”