Judge Rules in Favour of Anthropic, Suspends Ban on AI Use in Pentagon Environment

Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company, has won an initial round in its legal action against the United States Department of Defense (Pentagon). On Thursday (26/3) local time, Federal Judge Rita Lin ruled that the instruction from President Donald Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to halt the use of Anthropic’s tools cannot be enforced for the time being.

In her decision, Judge Lin stated that the government’s actions constitute an attempt to “cripple Anthropic” and “silence public debate” regarding the company’s concerns about how its technology is used by the military.

“This appears to be classic retaliation against the First Amendment,” wrote Judge Lin in her ruling document.

With this order in place, Anthropic’s tools, such as the Claude chatbot, will continue to be used by the government and external companies collaborating with the military until this legal case reaches a final decision.

The dispute began when Anthropic sued the Department of Defense earlier this month. The lawsuit was filed after President Trump publicly criticised the company, followed by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s move to label Anthropic as a “supply chain risk”.

This is the first time a US-based company has received such a label, a status typically reserved for companies from adversarial countries deemed insufficiently secure for government use.

The Pentagon argued that Anthropic’s rejection of new contract terms created a real need for the risk label. However, Judge Lin noted that the public statements from Trump and Hegseth largely attacked Anthropic by calling it “woke” and “left-wing lunatics”, rather than focusing on security issues.

“If this were purely a contract impasse, the Department of Defense should simply stop using Claude. However, the actions challenged here go far beyond what is reasonably necessary to address national security interests,” wrote Judge Lin.

Prior to the lawsuit, Anthropic had been negotiating for months over an expansion of a US$200 million contract. The impasse occurred when the Pentagon demanded that the contract include a clause allowing use “for any lawful purpose”.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei was concerned that such a clause would open the door to using their technology for mass surveillance of American citizens or the development of fully autonomous weapons.

In response to the court ruling, an Anthropic spokesperson expressed satisfaction. “Our focus remains on working productively with the government to ensure all Americans benefit from safe and reliable AI,” they stated.