US judge blocks Pentagon’s Anthropic blacklisting
Anthropic alleges US Defense secretary overstepped his authority Pentagon says national security risk designation is lawful
Judge Lin found designation was ‘illegal and baseless’
August 28, 2026 04:28
A US judge on Thursday blocked the Pentagon’s blacklisting of Anthropic, the latest turn in the Claude maker’s high-stakes fight with the military over AI safety on the battlefield. Anthropic’s lawsuit in California federal court alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk, a label the government can apply to companies that expose military systems to potential infiltration or sabotage by adversaries. Hegseth’s unprecedented move, which followed Anthropic’s refusal to allow the military to use AI chatbot Claude for US surveillance or autonomous weapons, blocked Anthropic from certain military contracts. Anthropic executives have said it could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business and reputational harm.
