Judge Says Pentagon Blacklist Of Anthropic Was Unconstitutional

A federal judge ruled that the Pentagon’s designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk was unconstitutional, The Verge reported, giving the AI lab a legal win after a contract fight over military limits on its technology.

The court treated the supply-chain designation as unlawful retaliation under the First Amendment.

Judge Rita F. Lin wrote that “the empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics,” and found that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s designation of Anthropic was “arbitrary and capricious.”

Anthropic sued in March in a California district court after accusing the Trump administration of retaliating against the company for setting red lines on unacceptable military uses of its AI systems.

The restrictions covered mass surveillance of Americans and lethal autonomous weapons, or systems with power to kill targets without human oversight.

The conflict began after Hegseth sought to renegotiate current AI lab contracts with the military so the Pentagon could use AI for “any lawful use.” Most AI labs accepted the new terms, while Anthropic refused to remove the two restrictions.

Less than 24 hours before a final administration ultimatum, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote that the company was not trying to police specific military operations, but believed AI could undermine democratic values rather than defend them in a narrow set of cases.

The government then named Anthropic a supply chain risk, a category usually reserved for national security threats.

The Pentagon also moved to reduce its reliance on Anthropic by signing deals with seven other technology and AI providers, including Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and SpaceX.

Lin had already temporarily blocked the blacklist in March.

The earlier order linked the designation to Defense Department records citing Anthropic’s “hostile manner through the press,” and framed punishment for public scrutiny of the government’s contracting position as illegal First Amendment retaliation.

Anthropic spokesperson Danielle Ghiglieri said the company welcomed the ruling that the designation was unlawful and remained focused on working productively with the government on national-security AI.

Lin's order vacated the supply-chain-risk designation and required the government to rescind the related directives against Anthropic.