- Federal workers regain access to Claude after court blocks controversial designation
- Judge calls government decision unconstitutional retaliation against AI company
- Anthropic Rejects Military Use, Triggering Shutdown of Federal Access and Backlash
Federal employees can now reconnect with Anthropic’s Claude for Government after a California federal judge blocked the Trump administration from designating the AI company as a supply chain risk.
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin issued a preliminary injunction, granting Anthropic’s motion to stop Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the administration from declaring the company a threat.
Federal employees at agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services received emails informing them that access to Claude had been restored, along with history and data from previous conversations.
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Cause of dispute
The conflict erupted in early 2026 after Anthropic refused to authorize the use of its Claude AI model to develop lethal autonomous weapons or for mass surveillance of the American population.
The company withdrew from partnership discussions with the US military over these concerns, which included fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance capabilities.
In response, the Trump administration designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk, a move that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called “legally unsound.”
This decision by the Trump administration did not prevent millions of users from registering daily with Claude.
The U.S. government has never applied this designation to a domestic company because it is generally aimed at foreign intelligence agencies, terrorists, and other hostile actors.
Judge Lin used striking language in her 43-page order granting the preliminary injunction.
“Nothing in the applicable law supports the Orwellian notion that an American company can be characterized as a potential adversary and saboteur of the United States for expressing disagreement with the government,” Lin wrote.
She called the administration’s actions “classic First Amendment retaliation.”
Lin noted that this designation has never been applied to a domestic company and is aimed primarily at foreign intelligence agencies, terrorists and other hostile actors.
The Defense Department, which the Trump administration has dubbed the War Department, appealed Lin’s order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The administration did not ask the appeals court to stay the district court’s injunction, allowing it to take effect.
Anthropic is also asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to grant an emergency stay of the Department of Defense’s supply chain designation.
The company claims the administration violated the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution.
This preliminary injunction allows federal workers to regain access to Claude, but the legal battle is far from over.
Via MLex
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