Anthropic scored an early legal victory after a federal judge in San Francisco granted the AI startup’s request for a preliminary injunction, temporarily blocking the Trump administration from carrying out actions that blacklisted the company and blocked federal agencies from using its Claude models.
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin ruled that Anthropic had shown a likelihood of success on key parts of its case, writing that the government’s actions appeared more punitive than safety-focused. Reuters reported that Lin said punishing Anthropic for calling public attention to the government’s contracting position appeared to be an illegal First Amendment retaliation.
The order prohibits, for now, the administration from implementing or enforcing President Donald Trump’s directive against Anthropic and advancing the Pentagon’s efforts to treat the company as a supply chain national security risk. Reuters reported that the decision was held for seven days to give the government time to appeal.
The dispute began after Anthropic refused to completely remove security restrictions placed on Claude during negotiations at the Pentagon. The company said it would not agree to use fully autonomous weapons without human supervision or mass surveillance by Americans, although it remained open to broader government work.
Trump then moved in late February to order federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s technology, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth separately called the company a supply chain risk, a design that could force defense contractors to avoid Claude in military work. Anthropic argued that this was the first time such a label had been used publicly in this way against a U.S. company.
The stakes are high as Anthropic has become a major AI supplier to the US government. The company had a $200 million contract with the Pentagon and had already deployed models on classified Defense Department networks before the relationship broke down over terms of service.
The Trump administration relied on separate legal authorities for the Pentagon blacklist and broader federal procurement restrictions, forcing Anthropic to challenge them in different courts. Another case related to civilian government contracts is still pending in Washington.