Trump blacklisting of "woke" Anthropic deemed illegal

What happened

The Trump administration’s blacklisting of Anthropic was illegal, a federal judge ruled in an order vacating government directives against the use of the firm’s AI technology. The government illegally retaliated against Anthropic by designating it a supply-chain risk to national security, said yesterday’s ruling by Judge Rita Lin in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

” The Trump administration won an early ruling from Trump-appointed judges in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which denied Anthropic’s emergency motion for a stay. But the DC Circuit appeals court went on to hold oral arguments and is still reviewing the case while the sides continue to submit briefs.

Anthropic had meanwhile also sued in the Northern District of California and won multiple rulings from Lin, a Biden appointee. Lin issued a preliminary injunction on March 26, prohibiting the government from implementing the Trump and Hegseth orders. ” Lin yesterday ruled that the Trump administration actions were arbitrary and capricious, violating Administrative Procedure Act requirements that govern how federal agencies may impose regulations.

” “The plain text of the statute is directed at covert acts or hacks, not overt, public positions regarding contract terms,” Lin wrote. The Trump administration could appeal the ruling and is continuing to make its case in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. We contacted the White House and will update this article if it provides a comment.

Why it matters

The maker of Claude AI technology was barred by the US after it refused to drop restrictions on the use of its products for lethal autonomous warfare and mass surveillance of Americans, the ruling said. “The undisputed record shows that the challenged actions constituted unlawful retaliation in violation of the First Amendment,” Lin wrote in an order that granted key portions of Anthropic’s motion for summary judgment.

” Lin vacated those government actions and ordered the Trump administration to rescind the directives that she deemed illegal. “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, referring to the Trump administration’s preferred name for the Department of Defense.

“The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics,” she added. The Trump administration provided only a “slim” justification to the court, Lin wrote, stating that the federal defendants “have now backed away from the thrust of their risk assessment, which relied on Anthropic having backdoor access to its technology once deployed in a national security system.

” Anthropic sued the Trump administration in March, saying the government blacklisted it in retaliation after Anthropic refused to let its Claude AI models be used for autonomous warfare and mass surveillance of Americans.

Anthropic said the First Amendment gives it “the right to express its views—both publicly and to the government—about the limitations of its own AI services and important issues of AI safety,” and that the government process for designating it a supply-chain risk did not comply with procedures mandated by Congress.

What to watch

The Computer & Communications Industry Association, a lobby group for tech firms, said it is “encouraged by this outcome, as this case matters to anyone doing business with the US government. ” Government use of Anthropic hasn’t completely stopped. “Despite the ban, government agencies continued using Anthropic’s tools as the White House and the company ‌gradually mended ties ahead of Anthropic’s planned IPO,” Reuters wrote.

Anthropic said in a statement provided to Ars that “we welcome the court’s ruling that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful.