A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Pentagon from designating artificial intelligence firm Anthropic as a supply chain risk, siding with the company in a dispute over AI safety policies.
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin issued the ruling on Thursday, also halting President Donald Trump's directive ordering all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic's services. The decision followed a 90-minute hearing in San Francisco federal court on Tuesday.
Judge Lin questioned the Trump administration's extraordinary step of labelling Anthropic a supply chain risk, which came after defence contract negotiations broke down. Anthropic had insisted on preventing its AI technology from being used in fully autonomous weapons or for surveillance of Americans.
Anthropic, the maker of chatbot Claude, sought an emergency order to remove what it called an unjustifiable stigma. The San Francisco-based company alleged the label was applied as part of an 'unlawful campaign of retaliation' and sued the Trump administration earlier this month.
The Pentagon argued it should be able to use Claude in any lawful way. Anthropic claimed violations of First Amendment free speech rights and Fifth Amendment due process, saying it was denied a chance to dispute the designation.
Judge Lin wrote that her ruling was not about the public policy debate but about the government's actions. '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,' she stated. 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.
