The Supreme Court has denied an attempt to trademark the phrase “Trump too small” for T-shirts, in a case that didn’t directly involve the former president but rather was a dispute between the person who wanted the trademark and the federal government.
Steve Elster argued that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s rejection of his application violated his First Amendment free speech rights. But writing for the court Thursday, Justice Clarence Thomas said it hadn’t, observing that courts “have long recognized that trademarks containing names may be restricted.”
It all stemmed from the 2016 presidential race, when Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., mocked then-candidate Donald Trump’s hand size during a primary debate. Elster, a lawyer, then sought to trademark a double entendre insinuating that Trump, now the presumptive GOP presidential nominee in the 2024 race, has a small penis.
The decision was one of three rulings from the Supreme Court on Thursday, in addition to a labor dispute involving Starbucks and the court’s rejection of an anti-abortion challenge over the mifepristone pill. More rulings are expected Friday morning, with the court still yet to decide a slew of important ones on abortion, guns, Trump’s criminal immunity and more. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for weekly updates on the top legal stories, including news from the Supreme Court, the Donald Trump cases and more.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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