A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Pentagon from designating artificial intelligence company Anthropic as a supply chain risk, halting a directive from President Donald Trump that ordered all federal agencies to stop using the firm's services.
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin issued the ruling on Thursday following a 90-minute hearing in San Francisco federal court. The judge questioned the Trump administration's decision to label Anthropic a risk, which came after defence contract negotiations broke down over the company's insistence that its AI technology not be used in fully autonomous weapons or for surveillance of Americans.
Anthropic, the San Francisco-based company behind the chatbot Claude, had sought an emergency order to remove what it called an 'unjustifiable stigma'. The firm alleges the label was part of an 'unlawful campaign of retaliation' and sued the Trump administration earlier this month. The Pentagon had argued it should be able to use Claude in any way it deems lawful.
Anthropic claimed its First Amendment free speech rights were violated through retaliation against its AI safety views, and that it was denied a chance to dispute the designation, breaching Fifth Amendment due process. Judge Lin wrote that her ruling was not about the public policy debate but about the government's actions, stating: 'If the concern is the integrity of the operational chain of command, the Department of War could just stop using Claude. Instead, these measures appear designed to punish Anthropic.'
The order is delayed for a week and does not require the Pentagon to use Anthropic's products or prevent it from transitioning to other AI providers. Anthropic has also filed a separate case in the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., which is still pending.
