It would appear that the Supreme Court is sending a California attorney a message about not wasting its time on trivial matters.
In this case, it is an insult to Trump that the attorney wanted to trademark.
The slogan was initially "suggested" by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) during the 2016 presidential primary campaign.
Don’t Waste Our Time
During the 2016 presidential race, Trump became famous for his nicknames given to opponents.
In the case of Rubio, he had responded to Trump calling him “Little Marco” with a jab of his own.
Rubio stated, “He is taller than me, he’s like 6′ 2″, which is why I don’t understand why his hands are the size of someone who is 5' 2".
“Have you seen his hands? And you know what they say about men with small hands — you can’t trust them.”
Attorney Steve Elster filed a trademark application for “Trump Too Small,” which was declined, which led Elster to claim that his First Amendment rights were being violated.
Justice Sotomayor stated, “The question is, is this an infringement on speech? And the answer is no.
“He can sell as many shirts with this saying, and the government’s not telling him he can’t use the phrase, he can’t sell it anywhere he wants. There’s no limitation on him selling it. So there’s no traditional infringement.”
Justice Gorsuch pushed back as well, stating, “At the end of the day, it’s pretty hard to argue that a tradition that’s been around a long, long time — since the founding, common law-type stuff — is inconsistent with the First Amendment.”
Chief Justice Roberts also hinted that it was unlikely they would take the case, stating, “That really cuts off a lot of expression a lot of other people might regard as an important infringement on their First Amendment rights.”
And here is Justice Amy Coney Barrett…
SCOTUS Justice Amy Coney Barrett poses a hypothetical during oral arguments in “Trump Too Small” case:
“Let's imagine…somebody wants to write a book called ‘Trump Too Small’ that details Trump's pettiness over the years and just argues that he's not a fit public official...” pic.twitter.com/RYIrzN52lm
— The Recount (@therecount) November 1, 2023
Again, his free speech rights are not being violated because he is free to sell the shirts, but it cannot be copyrighted simply because it has Trump’s name in it.
This is just a silly case, and it should rightfully be declined by the court.
