Judge says Pentagon's measures against Anthropic were 'illegal and baseless'

A federal judge has ruled that the Pentagon illegally blacklisted Anthropic as a national security threat, a decision based on claims about Claude's capabilities the company could not actually fulfill. US District Judge Rita Lin found that the government retaliated against Anthropic for speaking out against the company's restrictions on certain military applications.

The dispute began in February when Anthropic refused to remove safeguards preventing Claude from being used in military contexts, including autonomous weapons and mass surveillance. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called Claude's capabilities "exquisite" and gave the company three days to agree to all lawful uses or face designation as a supply-chain risk.

Hegseth also suggested invoking the Defense Production Act to compel Anthropic to provide Claude, and later announced the company's designation. However, the Pentagon had not yet written the assessment explaining why Anthropic posed the risk. When the assessment arrived, it suggested Anthropic could interfere with Claude models in ways the company could not actually do, as the models are static and Anthropic cannot modify or disable them.

The government had no prior concerns about Anthropic's supply chain. The court found the alleged danger "entirely unfounded" and noted the chronology suggested the Pentagon assembled its case after the fact to justify the conclusion. The Pentagon continued working with Anthropic on some projects, but the ruling emphasized that announcing the punishment before the formal designation process appeared designed to make a public example of Anthropic for criticizing the administration.