A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has ruled that the Trump administration's blacklisting of Anthropic was illegal. In an order vacating government directives, Judge Rita Lin determined that the administration engaged in unlawful retaliation against the developer of Claude AI in violation of the First Amendment. The dispute arose after Anthropic maintained restrictions preventing its technology from being used for mass surveillance of U.S. citizens and lethal autonomous warfare. In response, President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued directives ordering all federal agencies to cease using Anthropic products and prohibited defense contractors from conducting any business with the firm, regardless of whether the work was military-related. The administration had previously designated Anthropic as a national security supply-chain risk, alleging the company might possess backdoor access to its technology once deployed in sensitive systems. However, the court found these justifications lacked substance, noting that the defendants conceded Anthropic lacks such access and that its "black box" AI models pose no greater national security risk than any other industry competitor. Consequently, the judge granted key portions of Anthropic's motion for summary judgment and ordered the administration to rescind the illegal directives.