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

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Source: CNBC

Published Thu, Mar 26 2026 7:12 PM EDT Updated 6 Min Ago


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.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/26/anthropic-pentagon-dod-claude-court-ruling.html

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Link to ORDER (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.465515/gov.uscourts.cand.465515.135.0_1.pdf


Article updated.

Original article/headline -

Anthropic wins preliminary injunction in fight with Pentagon

Published Thu, Mar 26 2026 7:12 PM EDT Updated 3 Min Ago


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 after lawyers for the artificial intelligence startup and the U.S. government appeared in court for a hearing on Tuesday. A final verdict in the case could still be months away.

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. It sought the injunction to pause those actions and prevent further monetary and reputational harm as the case unfolds.

During the hearing on Tuesday, Lin pressed the government's lawyers about why Anthropic was blacklisted and expressed concerns that the company is being "punished" by the administration. "One of the amicus briefs used the term 'attempted corporate murder.' I don't know if it's murder, but it looks like an attempt to cripple Anthropic," Lin said.

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1. Judge blocks Pentagon order branding Anthropic a national security risk

The artificial intelligence lab argued that the Trump administration was punishing it for speaking about the risks of its technology.

Link to tweet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/03/26/pentagon-anthropic-national-security-risk-order-blocked/

A federal judge in San Francisco blocked a Pentagon order Thursday labeling the artificial intelligence company Anthropic a national security risk, saying officials had likely violated the law and retaliated against the firm for speaking publicly about how it wanted its technology to be used.

“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,” District Court Judge Rita F. Lin wrote.

The immediate practical implications of the ruling are unclear, but it represents a clear victory for the AI lab, which has been involved in a bitter power struggle with the Defense Department over the use of its Claude system by the military. Defense officials pushed the company to allow for the technology to be used for any lawful purpose, but Anthropic wanted a bar on it being used in mass domestic surveillance and to power fully autonomous weapons......

Anthropic argued in court that the government was overstepping its legal authority and punishing the company for exercising its rights to speak about its technology’s risks. The company said in legal filings that the administration’s actions had made customers wary, even those with no ties to the federal government, and could cost it billions in future revenue.

Lin wrote that her order does not prevent the Pentagon from choosing to stop doing business with Anthropic, but she barred the Trump administration from taking broader steps against the company. Her ruling is not the final say because a separate case related to a different law is playing out in another federal court in Washington. A panel of judges handling that case has yet to issue a ruling.