The Ku Klux Klan is taking a freedom of speech rights argument to Georgia's Supreme Court.
The International Keystone Knights of the Ku Klux Klan has been battling the state since 2012, when members were told they could not participate in a highway clean-up programme in North Georgia. This week,the case was moved from the state Court of Appeals to the state Supreme Court.
"The Government cannot be a censor of free speech," their attorney, Alan Begner, told the Washington Post.
In May 2012, the KKK group tried to "adopt" a 1.6km stretch on Route 515 in the Appalachian Mountains near the North Carolina border. The Georgia Department of Transportation denied their application, reasoning in a rejection letter that the area the members wanted adopt had a 105km/h speed limit and was not safe for volunteers. The letter also stated that "erecting a sign naming an organisation which has a long-rooted history of civil disturbance would cause a significant public concern."
"We just want to clean up the doggone road," Harley Hanson, who had filled out the application, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time. "We're not going to be out there in robes."
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in September 2012 in Fulton County Superior Court, arguing that the criteria for the Adopt-a-Highway programme are "unconstitutionally vague" and violate freedom of speech and freedom of association under Georgia's constitution.
A judge ruled in the KKK's favour in November 2014. The state of Georgia appealed.
The state's Court of Appeals recently said it did not have jurisdiction over the case.
