Anthropic wins preliminary injunction in DOD fight as judge cites 'First Amendment retaliation'
Source: CNBC
Published Thu, Mar 26 2026 7:12 PM EDT Updated 6 Min Ago
A federal judge in San Francisco granted Anthropic's request for a preliminary injunction in its lawsuit against the Trump administration.
Judge Rita Lin issued the ruling on Thursday, two days after lawyers for the artificial intelligence startup and the U.S. government appeared in court for a hearing. Anthropic sued the administration to try to reverse its blacklisting by the Pentagon and President Donald Trump's directive banning federal agencies from using its Claude models.
Anthropic sought the injunction to pause those actions and prevent further monetary and reputational harm as the case unfolds. "Punishing Anthropic for bringing public scrutiny to the government's contracting position is classic illegal First Amendment retaliation," Judge Lin wrote in the order. A final verdict in the case could still be months away.
During Tuesday's hearing, Lin pressed the government's lawyers about why Anthropic was blacklisted. Her language in the order was even sharper. "Nothing in the governing statute supports the Orwellian notion that an American company may be branded a potential adversary and saboteur of the U.S. for expressing disagreement with the government," she wrote.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/26/anthropic-pentagon-dod-claude-court-ruling.html
Link to ORDER (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.465515/gov.uscourts.cand.465515.135.0_1.pdf
Article updated.
Original article/headline -
Published Thu, Mar 26 2026 7:12 PM EDT Updated 3 Min Ago
A federal judge in San Francisco granted Anthropic's request for a preliminary injunction in its lawsuit against the Trump administration.
Judge Rita Lin issued the ruling after lawyers for the artificial intelligence startup and the U.S. government appeared in court for a hearing on Tuesday. A final verdict in the case could still be months away.
Anthropic sued the administration to try to reverse its blacklisting by the Pentagon and President Donald Trump's directive banning federal agencies from using its Claude models. It sought the injunction to pause those actions and prevent further monetary and reputational harm as the case unfolds.
During the hearing on Tuesday, Lin pressed the government's lawyers about why Anthropic was blacklisted and expressed concerns that the company is being "punished" by the administration. "One of the amicus briefs used the term 'attempted corporate murder.' I don't know if it's murder, but it looks like an attempt to cripple Anthropic," Lin said.