The Georgia Department of Transportation has denied an application by the Ku Klux Klan to join its adopt-a-highway program.

The decision was a no-brainer. State budgets are strapped and the program shifting maintenance of stretches of highways to community organizations looking to do good is popular. But the history of the KKK is ugly.

No one wants to drive down the highway and read a sign saying that the stretch of road unfurling before them is being maintained by a racist organization responsible for the worst period of racial violence in American history.

The KKK says it may sue Georgia. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 rejected Missouri’s attempt to reject a controversial group’s application, saying membership in the program cannot be denied because of a group’s political beliefs. Just the threat of litigation might force Georgia to capitulate. As this story notes, the transportation department in Kentucky accepted a white-separatist group’s contract to participate in the state’s highway cleanup program, fearing an unsuccessful legal battle.

Could this happen here?