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A U.S. federal judge ruled Thursday that sanctions imposed by the Trump administration against artificial intelligence giant Anthropic were illegal, finding that the government had punished the company for publicly criticizing the Pentagon.
“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 seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Lin barred the federal agencies named in the lawsuit from enforcing President Donald Trump’s order to stop using Anthropic’s tools.
She also overturned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s designation of the company as a “supply chain risk,” a status previously reserved for foreign firms.
Anthropic is the creator of the Claude AI models.
The ruling makes permanent the temporary suspension of sanctions ordered by Lin in March and takes effect immediately.
The government may appeal.
“We welcome the court's ruling that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful,” an Anthropic spokesperson said Thursday.
“We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology,” the spokesperson added.
The conflict began after Anthropic refused to allow the U.S. military to use Claude for fully autonomous lethal weapons or for the mass surveillance of Americans.
Trump lashed out at the company after that decision.
In a February social media post, he called Anthropic “a radical left, woke company” and “out-of-control.”
In Thursday’s ruling, Lin said the sanctions against the company “were based on a desire to make a public example out of Anthropic for its ‘arrogance’ in criticizing the government,” rather than to counter a genuine threat.
The military had been using Claude across a range of classified and sensitive systems.
According to reports by The Wall Street Journal and Axios, that included use during the January operation that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
The supply chain risk designation, formally made in March, canceled Anthropic’s military contracts and barred other Pentagon contractors from using its technology.
However, Anthropic’s victory is not complete.
A second sanction imposed by the Pentagon on the same day, based on public procurement regulations, remains in effect pending a court ruling in Washington.
A judge there refused to suspend the measure in April.
The White House has also bristled at repeated warnings by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei about the dangers of AI, including its potential impact on jobs.
Anthropic is expected within weeks to pursue a public stock market listing that could eclipse SpaceX’s record Wall Street debut in June, which raised $86.2 billion.
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