A San Francisco judge granted a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration’s move to label Anthropic a national security threat. Judge Rita Lin said the designation likely violated free speech and due process rights. The order halts enforcement for now and gives the US government seven days to seek relief from an appeals court.

A federal judge in San Francisco has dealt a significant legal blow to the Trump administration, granting AI company Anthropic a preliminary injunction that temporarily blocks the Pentagon's effort to designate it as a national security threat. The ruling, reported by CNBC, marks a major victory for the Claude-maker in its escalating standoff with the US government.

What did the judge say?

Judge Rita Lin issued the ruling on Thursday, two days after lawyers for Anthropic and the US government appeared in court for a hearing. In a strongly worded 43-page opinion, Lin wrote that the supply chain risk designation violated the company's First Amendment and due process rights, adding that the measures did not appear directed at the government's stated national security interests. "Nothing in the governing statute supports the Orwellian notion that an American company may be branded a potential adversary and saboteur of the US for expressing disagreement with the government," Lin wrote.

The order bars the Trump administration from implementing or enforcing the president's directive, and limits the Pentagon's efforts to designate Anthropic as a threat to US national security. Lin paused the ruling for seven days to allow the government to seek relief from an appeals court.