US District Judge Rita Lin ruled on August 28 that the Defense Department's designation of Anthropic as a supply-chain risk was unconstitutional retaliation, vacating the designation. The ruling stems from Anthropic's refusal to accept an open-ended Pentagon contract that would have overridden the company's restrictions on how Claude could be used—specifically its red lines against lethal autonomous weapons and domestic mass surveillance. The decision gives AI developers meaningful legal backing when resisting government demands that cross their safety boundaries.





