Anthropic wins preliminary injunction in DOD fight as judge cites 'First Amendment retaliation'

A federal judge in San Francisco granted Anthropic's request for a preliminary injunction in its lawsuit against the Trump administration . Judge Rita Lin issued the ruling on Thursday, two days after lawyers for the artificial intelligence startup and the U.S. government appeared in court for a hearing . Anthropic sued the administration to try to reverse its blacklisting by the Pentagon and President Donald Trump's directive banning federal agencies from using its Claude models . Anthropic sought the injunction to pause those actions and prevent further monetary and reputational harm as the case unfolds. "Punishing Anthropic for bringing public scrutiny to the government's contracting position is classic illegal First Amendment retaliation," Judge Lin wrote in the order. A final verdict in the case could still be months away. During Tuesday's hearing, Lin pressed the government's lawyers about why Anthropic was blacklisted. Her language in the order was even sharper. "Nothing in the governing statute supports the Orwellian notion that an American company may be branded a potential adversary and saboteur of the U.S. for expressing disagreement with the government," she wrote. In a post on X in late February, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared Anthropic a so-called supply chain risk , meaning that use of the company's technology purportedly threatens U.S. national security. The DOD officially notified Anthropic about the designation in a letter earlier this month. Anthropic is the first American company to publicly be named a supply chain risk , as the designation has historically been reserved for foreign adversaries. The label requires Defense contractors, including Amazon , Microsoft , and Palantir , to certify that they do not use Claude in their work with the military. Read more CNBC tech news Meta's court defeats add to Zuckerberg's recent woes, represent 'watershed event' for social media Meet Figure AI: The company behind the humanoid robot hosted by Me...