- Federal workers regain Claude access after court blocks controversial designation
- Judge calls government move unconstitutional retaliation against AI company
- Anthropic denies military use, prompting federal blackout and backlash
Federal employees can now log back into Anthropic’s Claude for Government service after a federal judge in California 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 prevent 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 has been restored, along with past conversation history and data.
The article continues below
The reason for the dispute
The conflict erupted in early 2026 after Anthropic refused to allow their Claude AI model to be used to develop lethal autonomous weapons or for mass surveillance of the American population.
The company walked away from partnership discussions with the US military over those concerns, which included fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance capabilities.
In response, the Trump administration designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk, a move Anthropic CEO Dario Amodi described as “legally unsound.”
This decision by the Trump administration did not stop millions of users from signing up for Claude daily.
The U.S. government has never applied this designation to a domestic company, as it typically targets foreign intelligence agencies, terrorists, and other hostile actors.
Judge Lin used striking language in his 43-page order granting the preliminary injunction.
“Nothing in the governing statute supports the Orwellian notion that an American company can be labeled a potential adversary and saboteur of the United States for expressing disagreement with the government,” Lin wrote.
She labeled the administration’s actions “classic First Amendment retaliation.”
Lin noted that the designation has never been applied to a domestic company and is mainly aimed at foreign intelligence agencies, terrorists and other hostile actors.
The Department of Defense, which the Trump administration has dubbed the War Department, has appealed Lin’s ruling 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 order to take effect.
Anthropic is also asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to issue an emergency stay under the Department of Defense’s supply chain designation.
The company claims the administration violated the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution.
This preliminary injunction allows federal workers access to Claude again, but the legal battle is far from over.
Via MLex
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can too follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, video unboxings, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
