GoKawiilA federal appeals court refused to halt the Trump administration’s efforts to blacklist Anthropic yesterday, denying the company’s emergency motion for a stay. But the court granted the US-based AI firm’s request to expedite the case and will hold oral arguments on May 19.
The ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was issued by a panel of three judges appointed by Republicans, including Trump appointees Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao. Katsas previously served as deputy counsel to the president during Trump’s first term, while Rao served in the Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget. The judges’ decision is a setback for Anthropic, but it’s only one of two cases it filed against the Trump administration, and the AI firm has had more success in the other one.
Anthropic says it exercised its First Amendment rights by refusing to let Claude AI models be used for autonomous warfare and mass surveillance of Americans, and that Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blacklisted it in retaliation. Trump directed all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic technology, and Hegseth labeled Anthropic a “Supply-Chain Risk to National Security,” prohibiting military contractors from doing business with Anthropic.
The DC Circuit ruling acknowledged “that Anthropic will likely suffer some degree of irreparable harm absent a stay,” which the court said appears to be “primarily financial in nature… Anthropic also claims ongoing harms from retaliation for its constitutionally protected speech,” but the firm “does not show that its speech has been chilled during the pendency of this litigation,” the ruling said.
Anthropic separately sued the Trump administration in US District Court for the Northern District of California, where a federal judge granted Anthropic’s motion for a preliminary injunction in March. The District Court judge handling the case in California, Biden appointee Rita Lin, described the Anthropic blacklisting as retaliation that violates the First Amendment. The Trump administration is appealing that ruling to the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.