Judge: No evidence to justify Anthropic risk label
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- Judge Rita Lin told a Thursday hearing the Trump administration has not presented enough evidence to justify its 'supply-chain risk' designation of Anthropic or its federal-use ban on the company's technology.
- Anthropic filed two lawsuits against the Department of Defense in March challenging the ban and risk designation; Lin temporarily blocked the ban that same month and is now weighing whether to make that order permanent.
- The contract dispute centers on Anthropic's refusal to allow its AI for mass surveillance of Americans or for targeting and firing decisions in lethal weapons, which the company said the technology wasn't ready for.
- The Pentagon argued a private company shouldn't dictate how the military uses technology and said it would deploy the tools in 'lawful' ways.
- Lin called the government's claim that Anthropic's public criticism of DOD justifies the ban 'really troubling,' warning it could set a precedent for retaliating against contractors who disagree with the administration.
- The DOD argued Anthropic could disable or alter delivered AI models during warfighting operations — a 'kill switch' theory that experts say lacks evidence and Lin said she saw no proof of.
Why it matters: If Lin makes her preliminary injunction permanent, the Trump administration will need actual evidence of supply-chain risk — not a contractor's public criticism — to justify banning a federal vendor. The hearing reframes procurement law: contractors who voice ethical objections to military AI use gain at minimum a higher evidentiary bar against administrative retaliation.
