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Pentagon blacklist struck
A U.S. judge ruled on Thursday that the Trump administration broke the law when it designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk earlier this year, barring federal agencies named in the lawsuit from enforcing Donald Trump’s order to stop using Anthropic’s tools.
““The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics,” Judge Rita Lin said in a 59-page decision.”
Judge Rita Lin said the government’s action was unlawful retaliation, writing, “The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics,” and she found the broad measures were “illegal and baseless.”
Lin’s 59-page decision overturned the designation of the company as a “supply chain risk” by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, which would have blocked government agencies from doing business with Anthropic.
The dispute began after Anthropic refused to allow the government to use its Claude AI model for fully autonomous lethal weapons or domestic mass surveillance, prompting Hegseth to accuse the company of “arrogance and betrayal.”
Anthropic said it welcomed the ruling, with an Anthropic spokesperson telling Reuters, “We welcome the court’s ruling that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful.”
First Amendment fight
Lin found the Pentagon’s measures violated the First Amendment and also denied Anthropic the pre-deprivation process required under the Fifth Amendment, according to CNN’s account of the ruling.
CNN reported Lin wrote that the designation “constituted unlawful retaliation in violation of the First Amendment” and that Anthropic “was denied the pre-deprivation process required under the Fifth Amendment.”
NPR described the dispute as retaliation for Anthropic’s criticism of the Department of Defense’s views on AI use, and it quoted Lin saying the government’s actions “were based on a desire to make a public example out of Anthropic.”
NPR also quoted an Anthropic spokesperson welcoming the decision, saying, “We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology.”
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Reuters said the government may appeal Lin’s ruling even as it blocked enforcement of the supply-chain-risk designation.
What happens next
The ruling caps the first of two lawsuits that Anthropic filed on March 9, while a second lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit remains ongoing, according to The New York Times.
“The ruling caps the first of two lawsuits that Anthropic filed on March 9”
The New York Times said the Trump administration could appeal Judge Lin’s ruling or wait for a decision in the second lawsuit before taking action, while Reuters reported that Anthropic still faces legal hurdles because the outcome of the second lawsuit is still pending.
Reuters reported that the designation made by the Pentagon was the first time a U.S. company had been publicly categorized as a supply-chain risk under an obscure government-procurement statute aimed at protecting military systems from foreign sabotage.
In the background of the standoff, Anthropic argued that AI models are not reliable enough to be safely used in autonomous weapons and that it opposes domestic surveillance as a violation of rights, while the Pentagon said private companies should not be able to constrain military action.
For Anthropic, the legal setback was paired with business momentum, as Reuters said the company was planning an IPO later this year that could value the firm at $2tn and raise $100bn, exceeding the record set by SpaceX in June.