U.S. District Judge Rita Lin ruled that the Department of Defense acted unlawfully when it designated AI company Anthropic a supply-chain security risk, finding the move crossed a constitutional line by punishing the firm for public criticism of military AI policy. The dispute began in February after talks over access to Anthropic’s Claude models collapsed: Anthropic sought limits barring use in fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance, while the Pentagon pressed for broad “any lawful use” access. Lin wrote that neither the Constitution nor the federal statute the department invoked allows sweeping penalties based principally on Anthropic’s critique of the administration’s views, and that empty national-security invocations are not a blank check to retaliate against critics. The decision also bears on Palantir’s Maven Smart System, which uses Anthropic’s Claude model, and reduces the risk of forced changes to that AI integration. Anthropic welcomed the San Francisco ruling and said it remains focused on productive national-security AI work. A parallel challenge in Washington, D.C., continues, leaving the company technically under the supply-chain risk label until that case is resolved; the Pentagon did not immediately comment.