- Federal Workers Regain Access to Claude After Court Blocks Controversial Appointment
- Judge describes the government’s measure as unconstitutional retaliation against the artificial intelligence company
- Anthropic rejects military use, prompting federal access shutdown and backlash
Federal employees can now log back into Anthropic’s Claude for Government service after a federal judge in California blocked the Trump administration from designating the AI company as a supply chain risk.
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin issued a preliminary injunction, granting Anthropic’s motion to block Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the administration from declaring the company a threat.
Federal workers at agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services received emails informing them that access to Claude had been restored, along with any history and data from previous conversations.
Article continues below.
Cause of the dispute
The conflict erupted in early 2026 after Anthropic refused to allow its Claude AI model to be used to develop lethal autonomous weapons or for mass surveillance of the US population.
The company walked away from partnership talks with the US military over these concerns, which included fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance capabilities.
In response, the Trump administration designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk, a move Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei described as “legally flawed.”
This decision by the Trump administration did not stop millions of users from registering daily on Claude.
The US government has never applied this designation to a domestic company, as it is typically directed at foreign intelligence agencies, terrorists, and other hostile actors.
Judge Lin used striking language in her 43-page order granting the preliminary injunction.
“Nothing in the governing statute supports the Orwellian notion that an American company can be branded as a potential adversary and saboteur of the United States for expressing disagreement with the government,” Lin wrote.
He called the administration’s actions “classic First Amendment retaliation.”
Lin noted that the designation has never been applied to a domestic company and is primarily aimed at foreign intelligence agencies, terrorists and other hostile actors.
The Defense Department, which the Trump administration has called the War Department, appealed Lin’s order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The administration did not ask the appeals court to stay the district court’s injunction, allowing it to take effect.
Anthropic is also asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to issue an emergency stay of the Department of Defense’s supply chain designation.
The company argues that the administration violated the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution.
This preliminary injunction allows federal workers access to Claude again, but the legal fight is far from over.
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