Anthropic wins preliminary injunction in Trump DOD fight

A federal judge in San Francisco granted Anthropic’s request for a preliminary injunction in its lawsuit against the Trump administration.

Judge Rita Lin issued the decision Thursday, two days after lawyers for the AI ​​startup and the U.S. government appeared in court for the hearing. anthropic lawsuit filed The administration will seek to reverse the Pentagon’s blacklisting and President Donald Trump’s directive banning federal agencies from using Claude models.

Anthropic sought injunctive relief to halt these actions and prevent further financial and reputational losses as the case progresses.

“Punishing Anthropic for bringing public scrutiny to the government’s contract position is classic illegal First Amendment retaliation,” Judge Lin wrote in the decision. It could still be months before a final verdict in the case is reached.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Lin pressed the government’s lawyers on why Anthropic was blacklisted. His next language was even sharper.

“Nothing in current law supports the Orwellian notion that an American company could be branded a potential enemy and saboteur of the United States for expressing disagreement with the government,” he wrote.

Anthropic’s lawsuit follows a dramatic few weeks in Washington, D.C., between the Department of Defense and one of the world’s most valuable private companies.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared Anthropic a so-called supply chain risk in a post on X in late February; This amounts to an allegation that the use of the company’s technology threatens US national security. The Department of Defense formally notified Anthropic of the appointment in a letter earlier this month.

Anthropic is the first American company to be publicly named as a supply chain risk, as this designation has historically been used for foreign competitors. The label requires Defense contractors including Amazon, Microsoft and Palantir to certify that they are not using Claude in their work in the military.

The Trump administration relied on two different designations (10 USC § 3252 and 41 USC § 4713) to justify the lawsuit, which must be challenged in two separate courts. So Anthropic filed another lawsuit seeking formal review of the Defense Department’s decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington.

Shortly before Hegseth declared Anthropic a supply chain risk, President Donald Trump wrote: A Real Social post Ordering federal agencies to “immediately cease” all use of Anthropic’s technology. He said there would be a six-month phase-out period for institutions such as the Department of Defense.

“WE will decide the fate of our country, NOT an out-of-control, Radical Left AI corporation run by people who have no idea what the real world is,” Trump said.

The Trump administration’s actions surprised many officials in Washington who admire and trust Anthropic’s technology. The company was the first to distribute its models over the Department of Defense’s classified networks and was praised for its ability to integrate with existing Defense contractors. palantir.

Antropik signed 200 million dollars The contract was signed with the Pentagon in July, but when the company began negotiating Claude’s deployment to the Department of Defense GenAI.mil Talks stalled on the AI ​​platform in September.

The Department of Defense wanted Anthropic to grant the Pentagon unrestricted access to its models for all lawful purposes, while seeking assurances that Anthropic’s technology would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance.

The two could not reach an agreement and now the dispute will be resolved in court.

“Everyone, including Anthropic, believes that the State Department [Defense] At Tuesday’s hearing, Lin said he was free to stop using Claude and look for a more tolerant AI vendor. “I don’t think that’s what this case is about. I think the question in this case is very different, which is whether the government violated the law.”

— CNBC’s Jeff Kopp contributed to this report.

WRISTWATCH: Judge says Pentagon’s actions aimed to cripple Anthropic