Anthropic secured its first courtroom victory against the federal government on Thursday evening, when a California judge ruled that the Trump administration’s designation of the company as a supply-chain risk was illegal.
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin found that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s move to label the Claude maker a threat to national security amounted to “unlawful retaliation” in violation of the First Amendment. She described the decision as “arbitrary and capricious” and said Anthropic had been denied due process, as required under the Fifth Amendment.
How the Dispute Started
Earlier in 2026, Hegseth and President Donald Trump tagged Anthropic as a supply-chain risk and ordered all federal agencies, including those outside of defense, to stop working with the company. The conflict grew out of Anthropic’s insistence on maintaining certain safety guardrails that blocked the Pentagon from using its models for fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance of American citizens.
The Pentagon denied that it planned to use Anthropic models for anything but lawful purposes, and argued that the company could attempt to control the military’s use of models it had already purchased.
What the Judge Found
In her ruling, Lin wrote that the government’s “words and deeds confirm that the challenged actions were based on a desire to make a public example out of Anthropic for its ‘arrogance’ in criticizing the government.”
She highlighted contradictions between the risk label and other government actions. Among them was Hegseth’s suggestion to apply the Defense Production Act to Anthropic, a step that “would mean the company was essential to national security rather than a threat to it.” Lin also noted that the Department of Defense continued to pursue a contract with the company, and that the government was collaborating on Anthropic’s new model, Mythos, for cybersecurity.
The judge added that Anthropic “undisputedly lacks” any backdoor access to its technology once it hands the systems over to the DOD.
“Though the Department of War is undisputedly free to select the AI vendor of its choice, the evidence demonstrates that the broad measures imposed on Anthropic were illegal and baseless,” Lin wrote. “The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics.”
What Comes Next
“We welcome the court’s ruling that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful,” an Anthropic spokesperson said in a statement. “We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology.”
Anthropic filed two complaints against the DOD in March, one in California and one in Washington, D.C. The California case produced Thursday’s ruling, while the D.C. suit remains ongoing.
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Image: techcrunch.com
