Judge rules Trump administration punished Anthropic illegally
A federal judge blocked measures against Anthropic, finding retaliation over its AI safeguards while leaving agency vendor choices intact.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration illegally punished Anthropic, permanently blocking key measures that had cut the artificial intelligence company off from parts of the federal government.
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco found that the administration retaliated against Anthropic for constitutionally protected speech and denied the company due process, according to CBS News. Lin’s ruling also upheld Anthropic’s claims under federal administrative-procedure law, FedScoop reported.
What did the judge rule about Anthropic?
Lin barred the agencies named in Anthropic’s lawsuit from enforcing President Donald Trump’s direction to stop using the company’s technology. She also overturned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s designation of Anthropic as a supply-chain risk, a label used to restrict a company’s role in government work.
The judge concluded Anthropic did not meet the legal definition for that designation. She found the challenged actions were intended to make a public example of the company over its criticism of the government, rather than based on an identifiable reason to believe Anthropic would sabotage its AI systems, CBS News reported.
That matters because the designation had reached beyond direct Pentagon work. Lin also struck down Hegseth’s February social-media statement that military contractors could not do any commercial business with Anthropic, finding it had prompted a wider boycott that included contractors’ non-military activity.
How did the dispute begin?
The clash centered on Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant. The company sought contract limits that would prevent Claude from being used for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. The military’s position was that it should be able to use the model for all lawful purposes, according to CBS News.
After negotiations failed, Trump ordered federal agencies to cease using Anthropic technology. Hegseth then called the company a supply-chain risk, moves the administration said were needed for national security.
Lin rejected the government’s stated concern that Anthropic could potentially sabotage its model through a so-called kill switch. She called the theory unsupported, citing evidence that Anthropic could not retain backdoor access to its systems, CBS News reported.
The ruling does not force the government to buy Anthropic products or continue any existing relationship with the company. Federal agencies may select another AI vendor, Lin said, as long as they act within applicable statutes, regulations and constitutional limits.
What happens next?
An Anthropic spokesperson told CBS News the company welcomed the decision and remained focused on working with the government on national-security uses of AI. The White House and Pentagon had been asked for comment, CBS News reported; the Justice Department did not immediately respond to FedScoop’s request for the government’s plans.
The government may appeal, according to The Guardian. A separate, narrower Anthropic case over another Pentagon supply-chain-risk designation remains pending in Washington, D.C., and could affect civilian government contracts.
This story draws on original reporting from CBS News.