Anthropic gets its first court win over the Pentagon’s supply-chain risk label | TechCrunch

On August 28, 2026, U.S. federal judge Rita Lin in California ruled that the Trump administration’s designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk was illegal. The ruling determined that the designation by Defense Department Undersecretary Pete Hegseth constituted unconstitutional retaliation and was “arbitrary and arbitrary,” depriving Anthropic of its right to due process. Previously, Hegseth and President Donald Trump had classified Anthropic as a risk because it set safety barriers to limit the Pentagon’s use of its models for developing autonomous weapons and monitoring citizens. Although the Pentagon denied that the models would be used for illegal purposes and accused Anthropic of trying to control military applications, the judge noted that the government’s actions were intended to publicly punish through criticism of “arrogance,” and that the Pentagon was still working with Anthropic to advance the Mythos model and cybersecurity projects. An Anthropic spokesperson welcomed the ruling, emphasizing that the company would continue to cooperate with the government to use AI services for national security…