In a move that will surprise absolutely no one who has been paying attention, a federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration's blacklisting of Anthropic was, in fact, illegal. Judge Rita Lin of the US District Court for the Northern District of California vacated government directives that barred the use of Anthropic's AI technology, calling the actions "unlawful retaliation" that violated the First Amendment.
The saga began when Anthropic, the maker of the Claude AI models, dared to refuse to let its technology be used for lethal autonomous warfare and mass surveillance of Americans. For this act of basic human decency, the Trump administration designated the company a "supply-chain risk to national security," a term that apparently now means "a company that won't do whatever we want."
Judge Lin's ruling was thorough in its evisceration of the government's position. She noted that Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered all federal agencies to permanently stop using Anthropic's products and banned all defense contractors from doing business with the company, even for non-military purposes. Lin vacated these actions and ordered the administration to rescind the directives.
"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, using the administration's preferred name for the Department of Defense. She added, "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics."
The government's justification was, in Lin's words, "slim" - they had claimed Anthropic had "backdoor access" to its technology once deployed in national security systems, but later conceded this was not true. As Lin noted, Anthropic's technology is "no riskier to the national security than any other 'black box' artificial intelligence model." So, basically, the administration's argument boiled down to "we don't like them."
Anthropic sued the administration in March, arguing that the blacklisting was retaliation for its refusal to allow its AI to be used for autonomous warfare and mass surveillance. The company cited its First Amendment right to express its views on AI safety. The White House, in response, said that "President Trump will never allow a radical left, woke company to jeopardize our national security by dictating how the greatest and most powerful military in the world operates." Because nothing says "greatest military" like being afraid of a company's terms of service.
The administration had some initial success in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, where Trump-appointed judges denied Anthropic's emergency motion for a stay. But that court is still reviewing the case, and Anthropic has been racking up wins in the Northern District of California under Lin, a Biden appointee. Lin issued a preliminary injunction on March 26, and now this summary judgment, which found the administration's actions were also arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act.
Lin's ruling noted that the statute defining "supply-chain risk" is limited to "the risk that an adversary may sabotage, maliciously introduce unwanted function, or otherwise subvert… a covered system." As she put it, "The plain text of the statute is directed at covert acts or hacks, not overt, public positions regarding contract terms." In other words, expressing an opinion is not sabotage, no matter how much the administration wishes it were.
The Trump administration can appeal, and it's likely to. Meanwhile, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, a tech lobby group, said it was "encouraged by this outcome, as this case matters to anyone doing business with the US government." Indeed, the Pentagon's action "deeply concerned any company that has contracts with the government." It's almost as if punishing companies for having ethical standards is bad for business.
Despite the ban, government agencies apparently kept using Anthropic's tools anyway, as the White House and the company gradually mended ties ahead of Anthropic's planned IPO. So the ban was not only illegal, but also ineffective. Anthropic said in a statement that it "welcome[s] the court's ruling" and remains "focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security." Because even after being blacklisted, they're still the adults in the room.