Pentagon’s blacklisting of Anthropic was unlawful, US judge rules

In her Anthropic ruling, Judge Rita Lin said the ‘empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics’. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

A US judge ruled on Thursday that the Trump administration broke the law when it designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk earlier this year, finding that the government had unlawfully targeted the AI firm for refusing to comply with defense department demands.

“The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics,” Judge Rita Lin said in a 59-page decision.