法院裁定：特朗普政府将 Anthropic 列入黑名单属违法行为

周四，一名法官裁定，五角大楼今年早些时候将 Anthropic 列入黑名单的做法违宪。这一判决使这家 AI 实验室在与特朗普政府持续数月、跌宕起伏的争端中取得胜利。

这起诉讼于3 月提起，提交至加利福尼亚州一家地区法院。Anthropic 指控特朗普政府因其为 AI 技术的军事用途设定“红线”——即不可接受的使用场景——而对该公司进行非法报复。

加州北区联邦地区法院法官 Rita F. Lin 在裁决中写道：

“空泛地援引国家安全，并不是惩罚和报复政府批评者的一张空白支票。”

她还写道，这些行为属于“违反《第一修正案》的非法报复”，并补充称，国防部长 Pete Hegseth 将 Anthropic 指定为供应链风险的决定“既武断又反复无常。虽然战争部无疑有权自行选择 AI 供应商，但证据表明，对 Anthropic 施加的广泛措施既违法，也毫无依据。”

事件始于去年冬天。当时，Hegseth 决定重新谈判所有 AI 实验室与军方现有的合同，以允许五角大楼将 AI 用于“任何合法用途”，这将显著扩大五角大楼的权限。大多数 AI 实验室最终签署了新条款，但 Anthropic 坚持拒绝让步，并提出两项限制：不允许其 AI 被用于针对美国人的大规模监控，也不允许用于致命性自主武器，即能够在无人类监督下杀死目标的 AI 系统。Anthropic 拒绝配合后，双方展开了一场高风险拉锯，承受的压力不断升级；随后，国防部官员发出大量侮辱性言论，特朗普政府则提出最后通牒。

在最后通牒发出前不到 24 小时，Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei 发表声明称，公司不会改变立场。他写道，公司“从未反对特定军事行动，也从未试图以临时、个案方式限制我们技术的使用”，但在“一小部分情形中，我们相信 AI 可能会削弱而非捍卫民主价值”。此后，Anthropic 被列为“供应链风险”——这一分类通常用于国家安全威胁；五角大楼则通过与另外七家 AI 实验室签约，试图取代 Anthropic 在国防部中的影响力，签约对象包括 Google、Microsoft、OpenAI 和 SpaceX。

Anthropic 以诉讼进行反击。3 月，Lin 法官站在该公司一边，暂时阻止五角大楼执行黑名单措施。她当时在命令中写道：

“战争部的记录显示，其将 Anthropic 指定为供应链风险，是因为该公司‘通过媒体采取敌对态度’。因 Anthropic 让公众审视政府的合同立场而对其进行惩罚，是典型的违反《第一修正案》的非法报复。”

周四，Anthropic 发言人 Danielle Ghiglieri 在一份声明中表示：“我们欢迎法院裁定这一供应链风险指定违法。我们仍专注于与政府开展富有成效的合作，利用 AI 服务国家安全，让所有美国人都能从这项技术中受益。”

On Thursday, a judge ruled that the Pentagon’s blacklisting of Anthropic earlier this year was unconstitutional, delivering the AI lab a win in a monthslong rollercoaster of a battle with the Trump administration.

The lawsuit, filed in March in a California district court, accused the Trump administration of unlawfully retaliating against Anthropic for setting “red lines,” or unacceptable military use cases of its AI technology.

“The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics,” Judge Rita F. Lin, a district judge in the northern district of California, wrote in the ruling.

She also wrote that the actions were “unlawful retaliation in violation of the First Amendment,” adding that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to designate Anthropic a supply chain risk “was arbitrary and capricious. Though the Department of War is undisputedly free to select the AI vendor of its choice, the evidence demonstrates that the broad measures imposed on Anthropic were illegal and baseless.”

It all started this past winter, when Hegseth decided to renegotiate all AI labs’ current contracts with the military to allow the Pentagon to use AI for “any lawful use,” which would expand the Pentagon’s authority significantly. Most AI labs ended up signing onto the new terms, but Anthropic stood firm on setting two restrictions: not allowing for its AI to be used for mass surveillance of Americans or for lethal autonomous weapons (i.e., AI systems with the power to kill targets without human oversight). Anthropic’s refusal to cooperate kicked off a high-stakes back-and-forth of intensifying pressure on both sides, followed by a bevy of insults from Department of Defense officials and a final ultimatum from the Trump administration.

Less than 24 hours before that ultimatum, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei issued a statement that the company wouldn’t change its stance, writing that the company has “never raised objections to particular military operations nor attempted to limit use of our technology in an ad hoc manner” but that in a “narrow set of cases, we believe AI can undermine, rather than defend, democratic values.” After that, Anthropic was named a “supply chain risk,” a classification that is usually reserved for national security threats, and the Pentagon moved to replace its influence in the Department of Defense by signing deals with seven other AI labs, including Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and SpaceX.

Anthropic fought back with the lawsuit, and in March, Judge Lin sided with the company, temporarily blocking the Pentagon’s blacklist. “The Department of War’s records show that it designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk because of its ‘hostile manner through the press,’” she wrote in the order at the time. “Punishing Anthropic for bringing public scrutiny to the government’s contracting position is classic illegal First Amendment retaliation.”

In a statement on Thursday, Anthropic spokesperson Danielle Ghiglieri said, “We welcome the court’s ruling that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful. We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology.”