Trump administration says Anthropic refusal was 'not protected speech' in US court

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In a new filing, the Trump administration backs Hegseth's designation

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  • Pentagon defends blacklisting Anthropic as lawful national security move
  • Company’s lawsuit claims designation violates free speech and due process
  • Court battle looms as experts say Anthropic may have a strong case

The Trump administration said the Pentagon did not violate Anthropic’s speech protections under the US Constitution’s First Amendment, when it blacklisted the AI company earlier this year.

In a court filing that the administration filed with the court earlier this week, it essentially backed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s designation that Anthropic was a national security supply chain risk, and deemed blacklisting as justified and lawful, Reuters reported.

In the last couple of months Anthropic, the company behind the famed Claude Artificial Intelligence solution, was in negotiations with the Pentagon over lucrative deals that would see Claude and other tools integrated into different US Department of Defense (DOD) projects.

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Responding with a lawsuit

The negotiations allegedly broke down after Anthropic declined to remove the guardrails that were set up to protect the technology from being used for autonomous weapons or domestic surveillance.

Soon after, the company was deemed a national security supply chain risk, to which Anthropic responded with a lawsuit.

In the lawsuit filed on March 9, the AI company said the “unprecedented and unlawful” designation violated its free speech and due process rights. At the same time, it said the designation also broke federal law that requires agencies to follow certain procedures when making these kinds of decisions.

"It was only when Anthropic refused to release the ⁠restrictions on the use of its products — which refusal is conduct, not protected speech — that the President ​directed all federal agencies to terminate their business relationships with Anthropic," it says in the filing. "No one has purported to restrict Anthropic’s expressive activity," it was stated.

Anthropic asked the California federal court to block the Pentagon’s decision until a ruling is made. Reuters says that “some legal experts” believe the company has a “strong case”. The company responded to the filing saying "seeking judicial ​review does not change our longstanding commitment to harnessing AI to protect our national security, but this is a necessary ‌step to ⁠protect our business, our customers, and our partners."

Via Reuters

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Sead Fadilpašić

Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.

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