A federal judge halted the Pentagon's supply chain risk assessment for Anthropic.

According to monitoring by 1M AI News, Judge Rita Lin of the Northern District of California has issued a temporary injunction halting the Trump administration’s designation of “supply chain risk” concerning Anthropic. This label is typically used for companies associated with foreign adversaries and has never been applied to a domestic company before.

In her scathing 43-page ruling, Lin stated that the designation is “likely both contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious,” and wrote: “There is no provision in existing law that supports such an Orwellian notion that a U.S. company can be labeled a potential adversary and saboteur for expressing dissent against the government.” She referenced internal Pentagon records indicating that Anthropic was listed as a supply chain risk due to its “hostile attitude exhibited through the media,” which constitutes “a classic case of illegal First Amendment retaliation.”

The incident arose after Anthropic refused to remove restrictions on the use of its Claude model in autonomous weapons and mass surveillance, while the Pentagon demanded unrestricted access to Claude. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth subsequently listed Anthropic as a supply chain risk, prohibiting civilian agencies from collaborating with it, and suggested that military suppliers must terminate their business relationships with the $380 billion-valued company. Anthropic estimates that the broad application of this designation could result in billions of dollars in losses, with even the narrowest metrics putting hundreds of millions in annual revenue at risk. Several major tech companies have submitted legal briefs supporting Anthropic.

The injunction will be delayed for 7 days to allow time for government appeals. Another challenge filed by Anthropic in federal court in Washington, D.C. is still pending.