A court strikes down the exclusion of Anthropic
On 27 August 2026 Judge Rita Lin granted Anthropic summary judgment: its designation as a supply-chain risk was unlawful retaliation under the First Amendment, violated Fifth Amendment due process and was arbitrary and capricious. She vacated the designation and permanently enjoined the measures against the company.
Why it matters
A court held in a final judgment that the state may not punish a developer for where it drew the line on what its model may be used for. That does not make the line binding on anyone else, but it stops being something a company can be shut out of a market over without explanation.
The case is Anthropic PBC v. U.S. Department of War, No. 3:26-cv-01996 in the Northern District of California. The suit was filed on 9 March 2026 over measures taken on 27 February and 3 March, and on 26 March the same court had already enjoined them preliminarily. The judge found that the department had acted on "a desire to make a public example out of Anthropic for its 'arrogance' in criticizing the government", and wrote: "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics." The measures imposed on the company were, in her words, "illegal and baseless". On one count, that the government had acted beyond its powers, the government won. The matter is not closed: a related case is pending in the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and the government's appeal of the preliminary injunction in the Ninth Circuit is stayed until that court rules.