Anthropic Beats Pentagon in Court Over AI Blacklist

A US federal judge ruled late Thursday that the Pentagon acted illegally when it blacklisted Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot, over the company's refusal to let the military use its AI for autonomous weapons or domestic surveillance. US District Judge Rita Lin found the designation was retaliation for the company's public criticism of the Defense Department's stance on AI use on the battlefield.

Lin issued the 59-page written order Thursday night, ruling that the government's actions violated Anthropic's constitutional rights. "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check" to punish government critics, she wrote, adding that the Pentagon had kept pursuing work with Anthropic even after the designation — behavior inconsistent with a genuine security fear. Al Jazeera + 3

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's move blocked Anthropic from military contracts after the company refused to let Claude be used for US surveillance or autonomous weapons. It was the first time a US company had been publicly labeled a supply-chain risk under the procurement statute, which is aimed at protecting military systems from foreign sabotage. Anthropic executives have said the ban could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business.

An Anthropic spokesperson said the company was "pleased the court has ruled that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful." The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the government is expected to fight the ruling. CNBC + 2

The dispute is being watched beyond Washington as a test of whether a government can use a security label to punish a supplier over a policy disagreement — a question Hong Kong regulators could eventually face as AI vendors get written into public contracts here.

Anthropic is fighting a separate Pentagon "supply chain risk" designation, under a different statute, in a parallel case still pending before the DC Circuit. Axios