The ACLU and the KKK: together at last.

Perhaps no other non-governmental group gets politicized as much as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and derided by the right as a vigilante for group for bleeding-heart liberals. Since they advocate for civil liberties, fairness and First Amendment rights, they usually end up representing the disenfranchised, who by nature tend not to be the GOP’s top demographic.

But today the ACLU is showing that they’re non-partisan, and they’ll represent any little guy whose civil liberties might be getting squashed by The Man.

In this case The Man is Lamar Paris, County Commissioner of Union County, GA. And the little guy is none other than the KKK, whose local branch, led by Harley Hanson of neighboring Fannin County, was rejected in its bid to adopt a mile-long stretch in Union County two weeks ago.

Rejecting the Klan, The Department of Transportation said it only allows “civic-minded organization[s] in good standing” to adopt stretches of highway.

The Klan, letting the DOT know what they could bring to the table, noted they’d be able to provide at least 6 members to volunteer in picking up litter.

For Commissioner Paris, however, the Klan’s history of racism and murder apparently qualified it as less than “civic-minded,” and he told Atlanta Journal Constitution that Union County is happy to pick up its litter without the Klan’s help. “We don’t need a controversy from a group who is claiming to want to pick up our trash. “We are fully capable of picking up our own trash.”

The ACLU is keeping its strategy top secret (“Yes, we are representing them, but we are still working on the strategy,” said ACLU director Debbie Seagraves). But we’re guessing it’ll come down to a basic first amendment issue: The decades of the KKK’s violence are long gone, and though we might disagree with their message they still have the same free speech rights as anyone else.

You’ve gotta admire Commissioner Paris trying, though.