Anthropic and Pentagon face off in court over Claude ban after company refused autonomous weapons request

Anthropic appeared in a Northern California federal court on Tuesday seeking a temporary injunction against the Department of Defense's decision to bar the U.S. military and its contractors from using Claude, after the company refused to loosen safety guardrails that would allow its AI to be used for domestic mass surveillance and fully autonomous lethal weapons. Judge Rita Lin, who called the case a “fascinating public policy debate,” questioned the government's position that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's social media post barring contractors from working with Anthropic had no legal force, saying the actions appeared to go beyond simply not working with the company and looked like “an attempt to cripple Anthropic.” Anthropic alleges the government violated its First Amendment rights by designating it a supply chain risk, a designation it says will cause hundreds of millions or more in revenue losses, and the outcome carries broad implications given that Claude is reportedly deeply embedded in U.S. military operations, including target selection for missile strikes in Iran.