Anthropic gets its first court win over the Pentagon’s

What happened

A federal judge in California ruled on Thursday evening that the Trump administration’s designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk was illegal. S. ” Lin also said Anthropic was denied due process, as required under the Fifth Amendment. Earlier this year, Hegseth and President Donald Trump labeled Anthropic a supply-chain risk and ordered all federal agencies, even those outside of defense, to stop working with the Claude maker.

Why it matters

The dispute stemmed from Anthropic setting hard lines on certain safety guardrails that would allow the Pentagon to use its models for fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance of American citizens. The Pentagon denied that it would use Anthropic models for anything but lawful purposes, and alleged that Anthropic could try to control the military’s use of the models it bought and paid for.

” She also pointed to the Department of Defense continuing to pursue a contract with the company, and the government collaborating with the company’s new model, Mythos, for cybersecurity. Lin also said it’s clear that Anthropic “undisputedly lacks” any backdoor access to its technology once it hands it over to the DOD.

What to watch

“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,” she added.

“We welcome the court’s ruling that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful,” an Anthropic spokesperson said in a statement shared with TechCrunch. C. C. suit is still ongoing. TechCrunch has reached out to the DOD for comment. When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.