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On Thursday, a federal judge indicated she has grown even more doubtful about the government’s justification for designating Anthropic as a restricted entity, pointing out that the arguments presented by Justice Department lawyers ended up weakening their position.

As per Lawfare Senior EditorRoger Paloff, who live-tweeted the hearing on Thursday morning, “Judge Lin found Anthropic’s arguments to be even more compelling than when she issued a preliminary injunction in March. It appears she believes the ‘supply-chain risk’ classification was a form of retaliation against protected First Amendment speech.”

The case goes back to February, when the Pentagon classified Anthropic as a “supply chain risk, prohibiting the company’s technology from being utilized by the DOJ after it declined to remove safety measures on its AI system that would stop autonomous killing of humans and other hazardous applications. Anthropic subsequently filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon, claiming a violation of the First Amendment, asserting that the government had retaliated against the company’s public stance on AI safety. According toAxios, the company stated that “the Pentagon has the right to disagree and decide not to collaborate with Anthropic… but it cannot label the company as a security risk due to protected speech.” At that time, Judge Rita Lin issued an injunction against the ban until she could consider additional arguments.

Now that she has, the situation is not looking favorable for the Trump administration. “I don’t see further evidence from the government that truly supports its actions. If anything, the record seems to have deteriorated further for the government,” stated the judge.

The government had essentially stated that Anthropic might present some unexpected danger, while the company’s legal team contended that evidence thatthe banwas a clear act of retaliation, as the entire matter had been made public. Although the judge has not yet issued a final decision, she appears to be leaning towards dismissing the Pentagon’s claims, stating, “I don’t observe any evidence that Anthropic could modify the model after it was provided or activate some sort of shutdown mechanism.”

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