Inflatable rat beats Jersey town

Officials of a Jersey town are feeling pretty cheesy today, now that the state Supreme Court has ruled that inflatable rats often used by organized labor are protected in the Garden State under the First Amendment.

The Supremes were asked to determine whether a Mercer County town had the right to bar the 10-foot rodent from a 2005 protest of low wages paid to electricians by an outside contractor. A labor official was fined $100 plus $33 in court costs for hauling out the national symbol, which sits on its hind legs and bears fangs.

An appeals court in 2007 upheld the Lawrence Township ordinance banning banners, streamers and inflatable signs -- except for use at grand openings. It said the measure was content-neutral and aimed at enhancing aesthetics while protecting public health and safety.

But that gnawed at union lawyers, who told the state's highest court that the ordinance violates the right to free expression and suppresses protest.

The Supreme Court ruled that an ordinance "that prohibits a union from displaying a rat balloon, while at the same time authorizing a similar display as part of a grand opening, is content-based."

The beady-eyed blow-up has been at the center of legal battles nationwide. It was born -- where else? -- in Chicago in 1990 as a way of cheaply getting a local's message across.

The first one's name? "Scabby."

Now the rats are popping up everywhere, at a cost of up to nearly $9,000 for the 25-foot-high monster mouse. They have mates, too, including skunks, roaches and inflatable pigs that carry their own none-too-subtle messages.
 

Flickr has a pool of inflatable rat shots. Check it out at: The Rat Patrol Pool