A federal judge in San Francisco ruled that the Pentagon's "supply-chain risk" label on Anthropic was unlawful, news outlets reported after an Aug. 27 decision by U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin.
CNN said Lin found "unlawful retaliation in violation of the First Amendment" and that Anthropic "was denied the pre-deprivation process required under the Fifth Amendment." TechCrunch and MeriTalk quoted her writing, "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics." Those quotes are from the named outlets. The CourtListener docket for N.D. Cal. case 3:26-cv-01996 was retrieved; the signed August opinion PDF was not, so the wording is attributed to the reports.
The docket shows Anthropic filed the California complaint on March 9, 2026. CNN reported Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled Anthropic a supply-chain risk in February. CourtListener proposed orders describe that Hegseth directive as dated Feb. 27, 2026. A related case in Washington, D.C., remains pending, according to coverage of the dispute. This article is about the California case, which the docket lists as terminated on Aug. 27.
Lin's March 26 preliminary injunction is on the public docket. As reported, the August ruling vacated the designation and does not require the Pentagon to keep using Anthropic.