The American Department of Defense appears to illegally punish Anthropic for trying to restrict the use of its AI tools by the militaryU.S. District Judge Rita Lin said during a court hearing Tuesday.
“This looks like an attempt to cripple Anthropic,” Lin said of the Pentagon designating the company as a supply chain risk. “It seems [the department] is punishing Anthropic for trying to draw public attention to this contract dispute, which of course would be a violation of the First Amendment.
Anthropic filed two federal lawsuits alleging that the Trump administration’s decision to designate the company as a security risk amounted to unlawful retaliation. The government put the label on Anthropic after pushing to limit how its AI could be used by the military. Tuesday’s hearing took place in a case filed in San Francisco.
Anthropic is seeking a temporary order to suspend the designation. The relief, Anthropic hopes, would help convince some of the company’s executives. nervous customers to hold on to it a little longer. Lin can only grant a break if she determines that Anthropic is likely to win the entire lawsuit. His decision on the injunction is expected in the coming days.
The dispute has sparked a broader public debate about how artificial intelligence is increasingly being used by the armed forces and whether Silicon Valley companies should show deference to the government in determining how the technology they develop is deployed.
The Ministry of Defence, now called the Department of War (DoW), argued that it followed procedures and appropriately determined that Anthropic’s AI tools could no longer perform as intended during critical moments. He asked Lin not to question his assessment of the threat he says Anthropic poses to national security.
“The concern is that Anthropic, instead of just expressing concern and reacting, will say we have a problem with what DoW is doing and will manipulate the software … so that it doesn’t work the way DoW expects and wants it to work,” Trump administration lawyer Eric Hamilton said during Tuesday’s hearing.
Lin said it was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s role — not his — to decide whether Anthropic was an appropriate supplier for the department. But Lin said it was up to her to determine whether Hegseth violated the law by taking action beyond simply canceling Anthropic’s government contracts. Lin said it was “troubling” to her that the security designation and guidance more broadly limiting the use of Anthropic Claude’s AI tool by government contractors “do not appear to be tailored to the expressed national security concerns.”
As the row between Anthropic and the government intensified last month, Hegseth posted on that “effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the U.S. military may conduct commercial activity with Anthropic.”
But on Tuesday, Hamilton acknowledged that Hegseth had no legal authority to prohibit military contractors from using Anthropic for work unrelated to the Department of Defense. When Lin asked why Hegseth would publish that, Hamilton replied: “I don’t know. »
Lin further asked Hamilton whether the Pentagon had considered taking less punitive measures to prevent the department from using Anthropic’s tools. She described the supply chain risk designation as a powerful authority typically reserved for foreign adversaries, terrorists and other hostile actors.
Michael Mongan, a WilmerHale lawyer representing Anthropic, said it was extraordinary that the government would go after a “stubborn” negotiating partner with the designation.
The Pentagon said it was working to replace Anthropic technologies over the coming months with alternatives from Google, OpenAI and xAI. It also said it had put in place measures to prevent Anthropic from engaging in any alteration during the transition. Hamilton said he didn’t know if it was even possible for Anthropic to update its AI models without Pentagon permission; the company says this is not the case.
A decision in the other case, in federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., is expected to be issued soon without a hearing.
