A U.S. judge ruled that the Trump administration illegally retaliated against Anthropic, lifting the ban and issuing a permanent injunction

U.S. Federal Judge Rita Lin issued a partial summary judgment in a 59-page ruling regarding Anthropic's lawsuit against the Trump administration, determining that the government's punishment of Anthropic for publicly refusing to allow the military to use its Claude large model for mass surveillance of U.S. citizens and lethal autonomous operations constituted illegal retaliation, violating the First Amendment, due process clause, and the Administrative Procedure Act. The judge also revoked the related designations and Defense Secretary Hegseth's injunction, issuing a permanent injunction.

The controversy arose from the Pentagon's demand that Anthropic remove all usage restrictions and accept terms allowing "all lawful uses," while Anthropic maintained its last two bottom lines. On February 27, 2025, Trump ordered all federal agencies to cease using the company's technology, and Hegseth subsequently prohibited any military contractors from doing business with it. During this process, the government abandoned its core claims, acknowledging that Anthropic had no backdoor access to the deployed models and that the risks of Claude were no greater than those of other "black box" systems. Lin pointed out that the government's punishment under the guise of "national security" was not a blank check, and that the government had been operating under the preliminary injunction since March without indicating any harm.

Anthropic did not achieve a complete victory, as its claim that Trump's directive exceeded presidential authority was dismissed. Anthropic informed the court that if the relevant measures continued, its defense-related revenue would decrease by 50% to 100%, resulting in a loss of billions of dollars in overall revenue by 2026.