Judge blocks Pentagon attempt to blacklist anthropologist

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from calling Anthropic a “supply chain risk” and cutting off the artificial intelligence company’s access to federal contracts.

U.S. District Judge Rita Lin granted Anthropic’s request for a preliminary injunction, concluding that the Trump administration’s “broad punitive actions” against the company “were likely unlawful” and could “cripple Anthropic.”

“Nothing in the governing law supports the Orwellian notion that a U.S. corporation may be designated as a potential adversary and subversive of the United States for expressing its disapproval with the government,” Lynn wrote in her ruling.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, the parent company of CNET, in 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that it infringed Ziff Davis’s copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

The dispute centers on the Pentagon’s request to use Anthropics Claude I “For all lawful purposes,” while Anthropic wanted to prevent the military from using it for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons systems. After Anthropic refused to meet the government’s demands, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said they would do so. Company Declaration “Supply Chain Risk”, Prohibiting the use of its products in defense contract work.

Anthropy responded with a A lawsuit was filed earlier this month In federal court challenging the designation, calling it an “unprecedented and unlawful” attack on the company’s right to free expression.

The administration’s actions do not appear to reflect the government’s national security interests and appear to be punitive in nature, Lin wrote.

“If the concern was the integrity of the operational chain of command, the War Department could stop using Claude,” Lin wrote. “Instead, these actions appear intended to punish Anthropics.”

Lynn also delayed her order for a week to allow the Pentagon to request a stay of the order.

Anthropic said in a statement that it was “grateful to the court for moving so quickly, and is pleased that it agrees that Anthropic is likely to succeed on the merits. While this case was necessary to protect Anthropic and our customers and partners, our focus remains on working productively with the government to ensure that all Americans benefit from safe and reliable AI.”

The White House and Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.