Federal Court Rules Against Trump Administration's Retaliation Toward Anthropic
A federal court has determined that the Trump administration unlawfully retaliated against Anthropic for its refusal to allow military uses of its AI technology. The ruling, delivered by Judge Rita Lin, granted Anthropic summary judgment on claims related to the First Amendment, due process, and the Administrative Procedure Act.
The controversy began when the Pentagon urged Anthropic to lift its restrictions on the use of its Claude language model, which the company had limited to avoid applications in mass surveillance and autonomous weaponry. While Anthropic agreed to most Pentagon requests, it retained two significant restrictions. In response, Trump issued an order on February 27, 2020, instructing federal agencies to stop using Anthropic's technologies, branding the firm as a "RADICAL LEFT, WOKE COMPANY" in a post on Truth Social.
Following Trump's order, media personality Pete Hegseth publicly criticized Anthropic on Twitter, accusing the company of arrogance and betrayal, and further prohibited military contractors from working with it. Despite the court's ruling that the government recognized Anthropic's systems posed no greater risk than other AI technologies and that the company did not provide backdoor access to its models, the court dismissed Anthropic's claim that Trump's actions exceeded presidential authority.
