A federal judge struck down the Pentagon's Anthropic blacklist as First Amendment retaliation.

Judge Rita Lin ruled August 27 that Defense Secretary Hegseth's designation of Anthropic as a supply-chain risk violated the First Amendment and Fifth Amendment due process, ordering the government to rescind all directives against the company (The Verge). Her 59-page opinion found the blacklisting was driven by "a desire to make a public example out of Anthropic for its 'arrogance' in criticizing the government," and wrote that "the empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics." The dispute started over a $200M contract where Anthropic demanded contractual bars on autonomous lethal weapons and domestic mass surveillance. A separate D.C. suit over a second designation covering civilian agencies is still live.