A man seeking to trademark a T-shirt design mocking the size of President Trump’s hands was denied at the Supreme Court Thursday, ensuring anyone can print T-shirts ridiculing the size of Trump’s hands.

In a ruling Thursday the Supreme Court denied a California lawyer who sought to trademark the phrase “Trump too small” for use on T-shirts and hats.

The Patent and Trademark Office had denied his application for a trademark citing the fact that it contained the name of a living person and that the lawyer, Steve Elster, did not have Trump’s consent.

Mr. Elster in turn sued, saying that the rule preventing him from trademarking “Trump too small” was a violation of his First Amendment rights.

The phrase stems from an exchange between Trump and Senator Rubio in a 2016 presidential debate, when Trump called Mr. Rubio “little Marco” and Mr. Rubio responded by calling attention to the size of Trump’s hands.

Trump responded by raising his hands, asking, “Are they small hands? He referred to my hands, if they’re small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there’s no problem — I guarantee.”

Though all nine justices ruled against granting Mr. Elster the trademark, the justices had differing reasonings for why. Justice Clarence Thomas cited the American tradition of letting individuals control trademarks referencing their own names.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, in a concurring opinion, said that the trademark rule simply did not violate any part of the Constitution. The three liberal justices agreed at least in part with Justice Barrett’s opinion.