The KKK sued the state of Georgia in 2012, and now their case is being heard.
The group has previously been barred from enrolling in the “adopt a highway” program in which participating groups can have their logos appear on signs along the highway they adopt.
Officials told the International Keystone Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Inc that having the KKK’s logo along a highway would lead distracted driving, not to mention social unrest. Moreover, because road signs are considered “government speech,” they are not protected by the First Amendment.
Brittany Bolton, an attorney for the state, pointed out that motorists who saw such a logo “would have no doubt about who the speaker is and that is the state.”
She also pointed out that the case was similar to one decided recently by the U.S. Supreme Court giving Texas the right to reject specially designed license plates that displayed the Confederate flag.
Alan Begner, the attorney representing the KKK, argued that the state of Georgia has stronger laws for free speech than the national government does and that, additionally, the state was not protected by litigation by sovereign immunity in the case of constitutional rights such as free speech.
Last year, a county judge refused a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, and so that state of Georgia finds itself in a legal battle with the KKK even while other Southern states are reexamining their stances on issues such as the Confederate flag.