Judge Rules Pentagon’s Label Against Anthropic Was Illegal

👁 115 reads

U.S. District Judge Rita Lin ruled on Thursday evening that the Trump administration’s designation of Anthropic as a supply-chain risk was illegal, finding that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s labeling of the Claude maker as a national-security threat constituted “unlawful retaliation” in violation of the First Amendment and was “arbitrary and capricious.” Lin also held that Anthropic was denied due process under the Fifth Amendment.

The dispute began when Hegseth and President Donald Trump ordered all federal agencies to stop working with Anthropic after the company set hard limits preventing the Pentagon from using its models for fully autonomous weapons or mass surveillance of American citizens. The government denied those intended uses and alleged Anthropic was seeking to control how the military used technology it had purchased.

Lin cited several contradictions in the government’s position - including Hegseth’s own proposal to apply the Defense Production Act to Anthropic, which would have classified the company as essential to national security rather than a threat, and the DOD’s continued pursuit of a contract with the company. “The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics,” Lin wrote. Anthropic filed two complaints against the DOD in March, one in California and one in Washington D.C.; the D.C. case remains ongoing.

// read moreJudge Rules Trump Admin Illegally Blacklisted AnthropicNewsAI Act Deepfake Rules: Who Must Label AI Content From Aug 2026GuidesSpotify to label AI artists, drop from recommendations mid-SeptemberAI Tools

Kinetyra