PARIS — Rejecting complaints that heavy police use of golf-ball-size rubber bullets has caused serious injuries, including blindness and fractures, during the Yellow Vest protests, France’s highest administrative court Friday upheld the legality of the weapons.

The ruling was a boost for the French government’s tough police strategy in the face of a popular uprising that is diminished but still vigorous.

Dozens have been mutilated or blinded by the projectiles over weeks of Yellow Vest demonstrations, according to victim advocates. Bystanders, passers-by, people with their arms in the air, and journalists have been hit. Jaws have been fractured, hands crushed, eyes shot out.

Their use — overuse, critics say, with more than 9,200 firings recorded, including forbidden shots to the head — have come to symbolize an increasingly fierce police response to the Yellow Vests, especially after a protest leader’s eye was seriously injured last week.