ATLANTA (AP) Georgia's Court of Appeals says it doesn't have jurisdiction to determine whether the state violated a Ku Klux Klan group's constitutional rights by refusing to allow it into a highway cleanup program.
In an order issued Tuesday, the Court of Appeals transferred the case to the state Supreme Court.
The order says that court has jurisdiction in cases involving the construction of the state or federal constitutions in which the constitutionality of a law, ordinance or constitutional provision is questioned.
The state denied the north Georgia KKK group's application for the Adopt-A-Highway program in 2012. The International Keystone Knights of the KKK protested their exclusion from the program and even had the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation sue on the group's behalf, saying its free speech right was violated.
The highway in question is a section of Ga. Hwy. 515 near Blairsville in Union County.
A judge ruled in the group's favor in November 2014. The state appealed.
AccessWDUN Staff contributed to this story.