Dario Amodei, co-founder and chief executive officer of Anthropic, during an interview on "The Circuit with Emily Chang" at Anthropic's headquarters in San Francisco, California, US, on Thursday, April 30, 2026.Jason Henry | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesA federal judge in California on Thursday ruled that the Pentagon's effort to blacklist Anthropic earlier this year violated the First Amendment and deprived the artificial intelligence company of its constitutionally protected liberties. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin vacated Anthropic's supply chain risk designation and declared that the Department of Defense's actions violated the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. Lin directed the DOD to rescind all guidance, directives, communications or instructions that it issued against the company. "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," the judge wrote in her ruling in San Francisco federal court.In March, the DOD designated Anthropic a supply chain risk, meaning the company purportedly threatened U.S. national security, after negotiations about how the military could use its Claude AI models spiraled out of control. "We welcome the court's ruling that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful. We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology," an Anthropic spokesperson told CNBC in a statement. This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.