Federal Judge Overturns Pentagon’s Unlawful Blacklisting of AI Startup Anthropic

In a landmark ruling that could shape the future of AI in government, a federal judge has nullified the Trump administration’s classification of AI startup Anthropic as a national security “supply chain risk”. The judge found the move to be an unlawful retaliation that infringed on both the First and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

U.S. District Judge Rita Lin, presiding in the Northern District of California, issued a comprehensive 59-page decision on Thursday evening. She ruled that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s actions against Anthropic were “arbitrary and capricious” and constituted illegal punishment of the company for expressing its AI safety principles.

The ruling is effective immediately, prohibiting named federal agencies from enforcing the White House order that severed Anthropic from all government work.

The controversy ignited in February 2026 after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei publicly declined to grant the Pentagon unrestricted access to its Claude AI models. He firmly opposed their use for fully autonomous weapons and domestic mass surveillance.

In retaliation, President Trump instructed all federal agencies to cease using Anthropic’s products. Simultaneously, Hegseth tagged the company as a supply chain risk — a label typically reserved for foreign adversaries.

Judge Lin determined that the evidence indicated the Pentagon’s intention to make a “public example” of Anthropic for its perceived “arrogance,” rather than any legitimate security concern.

Anthropic welcomed the ruling, although a second lawsuit in Washington D.C., addressing a separate Pentagon rule, is still pending.

Source: TechCrunch – Anthropic Gets Its First Court Win Over the Pentagon’s Supply Chain Risk Label