“The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech. No federal statute authorizes the actions taken here. Anthropic turns to the judiciary as a last resort to vindicate its rights and halt the Executive’s unlawful campaign of retaliation,” Anthropic said in the 48-page lawsuit.
Anthropic has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense after the federal government moved to designate the artificial intelligence company as a “supply chain risk.”
According to CBS News, attorneys for Anthropic described the Pentagon’s controversial reclassification of Anthropic as “unprecedented and unlawful.”
“The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech. No federal statute authorizes the actions taken here. Anthropic turns to the judiciary as a last resort to vindicate its rights and halt the Executive’s unlawful campaign of retaliation,” Anthropic said in the 48-page lawsuit.
The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
In a separate and more targeted claim, Anthropic also asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review the Pentagon’s determination that the company’s operations pose a risk to the supply chain. Federal law gives the D.C.-based appeals court jurisdiction over such disputes.
CBS News notes that the lawsuits both arise from guardrails that Anthropic tried to implement on the Pentagon’s proposed use of Claude, the only artificial intelligence model currently authorized for use on classified networks. Anthropic had repeatedly sought assurances that Claude and other AI tools would not be used for purposes such as the mass surveillance of U.S. citizens or the creation of autonomous weapons.
The Pentagon, for its part, insisted that Claude be available for any and “all lawful use.”
After both sides failed to reach an agreement by the end of February, President Donald Trump announced that he had ordered all federal agencies “to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology.” Soon afterward, former Fox News host and current U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said his department would immediately move to designate Anthropic as a supply chain risk.
“Anthropic’s contracts with the federal government are already being canceled. Current and future contracts with private parties are also in doubt, jeopardizing hundreds of millions of dollars in the near-term,” Anthropic said in its lawsuit. “On top of those immediate economic harms, Anthropic’s reputation and core First Amendment freedoms are under attack. Absent judicial relief, those harms will only compound in the weeks and months ahead.”
The lawsuit further accused the Trump administration of “seeking to destroy the economic value created by one of the world’s fastest-growing private companies, which is a leader in responsibly developing an emergent technology of vital significance to our Nation.”
“The Challenged Actions inflict immediate and irreparable harm on Anthropic; on others whose speech will be chilled; on those benefiting from the economic value the company can continue to create; and on a global public that deserves robust dialogue and debate on what AI means for warfare and surveillance,” the lawsuit says. “There is no valid justification for the Challenged Actions. The Court should declare them unlawful and enjoin Defendants from taking any steps to implement them.”
Sources
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anthropic-pentagon-supply-chain-risk-lawsuit/
Anthropic sues Pentagon, Trump administration over “supply chain risk” designation
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