Judge doubts the Pentagon ever justified its Anthropic ban

Judge grows more skeptical of Pentagon's case

US District Judge Rita Lin sharpened her criticism of the Pentagon's blacklisting of @AnthropicAI at a summary judgment hearing in San Francisco on Thursday, July 30, signalling she is even less persuaded by the government's position than she was months ago.

"I don't see additional evidence from the government really justifying what it did. If anything, it seems like the record, in some ways, has gotten worse for the government," Lin said within the first five minutes of opening the hearing. She went further, adding that she saw no evidence that Anthropic could alter a model after it was delivered or "flip some kind of kill switch", the two technical claims that underpinned the supply chain risk label applied in March.

The designation effectively blacklisted Anthropic across federal agencies and blocked it from certain military contracts. Anthropic executives have said the action could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business and reputational harm.

How the dispute started

The standoff followed Anthropic's refusal to allow the military to use its AI chatbot, Claude, for US surveillance or autonomous weapons. Anthropic maintains that AI models are not reliable enough to be safely used in autonomous weapons and that it opposes domestic surveillance as a violation of rights. The administration responded by ordering agencies to cut ties with the company, arguing that operational authority rests with the commander-in-chief, not a vendor.

At an earlier stage of the litigation, Judge Lin wrote that "the record strongly suggests that the reasons given for designating Anthropic a supply chain risk were pretextual" and that the government's "real motive was unlawful retaliation." She later temporarily blocked the Defense Department's ban, finding that Anthropic had shown a likelihood of success on the merits and would suffer irreparable harm without an injunction.

Both Anthropic and the Pentagon have now asked the judge to grant summary judgment in their favor. Lin is not expected to rule from the bench and there is no deadline for her decision. She typically issues written decisions after hearings. The outcome carries broad implications, with billions of dollars in federal AI contracts riding on the result.

Sources:
Axios: Judge says government's case got "worse" in Anthropic fight
Breaking Defense: Judge grants Anthropic preliminary injunction
NPR: Judge says government's Anthropic ban looks like punishment