Anthropic has sued the Trump administration in two federal courts, alleging an “unlawful campaign of retaliation” after the AI company refused to grant the military unrestricted access to its Claude software.
The company filed suit in a California federal court on Monday seeking to reverse a Department of Defense decision, finalized on March 3, that designated Anthropic a “supply chain risk” — a label previously applied only to companies tied to foreign adversaries. It marks the first time an American company has received that designation. A parallel filing in a Washington, D.C., appeals court also challenges the same decision.
The supply chain label bars any person or business doing work with the military from also dealing with Anthropic. According to the lawsuit, President Donald Trump separately directed federal employees to stop using Claude after the government had already agreed to contract terms that included the company’s usage restrictions.
What Anthropic Says It Refused to Do
The company says Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — named as a defendant — demanded it “discard its usage restrictions altogether.” Anthropic declined, citing provisions in its government contracts that prohibit Claude from being used for lethal autonomous warfare or mass surveillance of Americans.
“Anthropic has never tested Claude for those uses,” the company said in its filing. “Anthropic currently does not have confidence, for example, that Claude would function reliably or safely if used to support lethal autonomous warfare.”
The suit argues the government’s response amounts to unconstitutional punishment for protected speech. “The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech,” the filing states.
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The lawsuit names Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and 17 other government agencies and officials alongside Hegseth.
Industry Support
A group of more than 30 AI engineers and scientists from OpenAI and Google — including Google chief scientist Jeff Dean — filed a legal brief in support of Anthropic on Monday.
“If allowed to proceed, this effort to punish one of the leading U.S. AI companies will undoubtedly have consequences for the United States’ industrial and scientific competitiveness in the field of artificial intelligence and beyond,” the group wrote.
The U.S. government has used Anthropic‘s technology since 2024, and Claude is described in the announcement as the first AI deployed for classified government work. The legal actions come after reports that the U.S. military used Anthropic‘s technology during operations against Iran despite an existing ban order from Trump.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.
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