Santa, Spider-Man Help Scabby the Rat Survive Appeals Court Case

Scabby the Rat lives to fight another day, maybe even at the U.S. Supreme Court.

A federal appeals court on Feb. 14 ruled that the code enforcement officer in Grand Chute, Wis., did nothing unconstitutional or otherwise improper when he ordered a local union to deflate a Scabby balloon that members put up to protest an auto dealer’s pay rates.

The appeals court’s ruling also lays out a path for other localities to ban the labor protest icon through use of sign ordinances without violating unions’ First Amendment rights.

But while a defeat for labor, the ruling is unlikely to ...