A federal judge in San Francisco said Tuesday the government’s ban on Anthropic looks like punishment after the AI company publicly clashed with the Pentagon over possible military uses of its Claude model. U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin made the comment at the start of a hearing on Anthropic’s request for a preliminary injunction in one of its suits challenging the Pentagon’s designation of the company as a “supply chain risk,” a step that has effectively barred it from government business.
“It looks like an attempt to cripple Anthropic,” Lin said, raising concern the government might be retaliating for the company’s public stance. She said she expected to rule within a few days on whether to temporarily block the ban while the court weighs the case on the merits.
The hearing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California is the latest chapter in a dispute between one of the leading AI firms and the Trump administration, and it has broader implications for how government agencies use AI. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei announced in late February that the company would not permit Claude to be used for autonomous weapons or to surveil American citizens. President Trump then ordered U.S. government agencies to stop using Anthropic’s products.
Earlier this month the Pentagon labeled Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” citing national security concerns — a designation typically reserved for entities viewed as potential foreign adversaries. Anthropic has filed two federal lawsuits, one in the Northern District of California and another in the D.C. federal appeals court, arguing the designation is illegal retaliation for its public safety stance and that it will deprive the company of customers and revenue by preventing Pentagon contractors from working with it. The suits assert the administration violated Anthropic’s First Amendment rights and exceeded the statutory authority for supply chain risk designations.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Anthropic’s lawyers noted this appears to be the first time such a designation has been applied to a U.S. company. Judge Lin acknowledged the Pentagon’s discretion to decide which AI products to use, but questioned whether the government broke the law by ordering agencies to avoid Anthropic and by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s statement that potential Pentagon contractors must sever ties with the company.
Lin characterized the actions as “troubling,” saying they did not seem narrowly tailored to the stated national security concerns — which, she suggested, could be addressed simply by the Pentagon ceasing to use Claude — and instead resembled punishment. Government attorneys argued the measures were not retaliatory but were prompted by legitimate worries about Anthropic’s refusal to permit certain uses of its model and by theoretical risks that future updates to Claude could pose national security problems.
Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment on ongoing litigation.