Court finds blacklisting was retaliation for Anthropic’s Pentagon criticism
A federal judge ruled late Thursday that the Trump administration violated Anthropic’s First Amendment rights by labeling the artificial-intelligence company a supply-chain risk, and barred the government from continuing the blacklisting. U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin of the Northern District of California largely sided with Anthropic in a final ruling on its March lawsuit against the administration, finding the government had acted in “unlawful retaliation” for the company’s public criticism of the Pentagon’s use of AI.
Lin determined the government had not found Anthropic to be an actual national security risk. In her decision, she wrote that “defendants’ contemporaneous words and deeds confirm that the challenged actions were based on a desire to make a public example out of Anthropic for its ‘arrogance’ in criticizing the government.”
Lin directed the government to rescind all guidance, directives, communications, or instructions to blacklist and label Anthropic a supply-chain risk. The order grants Anthropic relief in what had been a monthslong fight with the Pentagon.
Anthropic filed the lawsuit in March, after its public pushback against the Pentagon’s use of artificial intelligence. The supply-chain-risk designation followed that criticism, according to Lin’s decision.
The case reached final ruling late Thursday, closing a legal confrontation that began with a private company’s public objection to military AI deployment. Lin wrote that the government had erred in its haste to label Anthropic a supply-chain risk.