A federal judge warned Monday that allowing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to punish critics by calling it a breach of "trust" could "eviscerate" First Amendment protections.
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin filed a notice of questions July 27 ahead of a summary judgment hearing July 30 in Anthropic's lawsuit against the Department of War in San Francisco federal court.
Anthropic sued after Hegseth designated it a national security threat when it refused to let the Pentagon use its Claude AI model for autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance, according to the lawsuit.
Lin asked in the filing whether allowing the government to retaliate against a defense contractor for public criticism — so long as the government called it a breach of "trust" — would "eviscerate First Amendment protections."
The government has argued that Anthropic damaged its "trust" by publicly airing safety concerns about the contract, which Lin suggested is precisely what the First Amendment is supposed to protect.
Lin posed a hypothetical to illustrate the stakes. Imagine a future administration contracts with a drone company that refuses to make lethal drones and speaks out publicly. "In direct response to the company's public messaging, the administration puts up billboards across the country that label the company and its CEO 'enemies of the state' and warn others not to do business with the company or risk unspecified consequences," Lin wrote in the filing.
Months earlier, Lin had signaled her position, writing in March that "this appears to be classic First Amendment retaliation."
Lin also noted in that ruling that President Donald Trump and Hegseth had publicly called Anthropic "woke" and full of "left-wing nut jobs" — not a word about national security.
The dispute traces to a $200 million contract Anthropic signed with the Department of War in 2025. Hegseth demanded the company drop its restrictions on military AI use. When it refused, he blacklisted it as a national security supply chain risk — a designation previously reserved for foreign adversaries, according to court filings.
In February, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled in Washington that Hegseth had "trampled" on Sen. Mark Kelly's (D-AZ) First Amendment rights by retaliating against the Arizona Democrat for urging service members to refuse illegal orders.
House Democrats accused Hegseth in April of having "demonstrated a willful disregard for the Constitution," introducing articles of impeachment that have no realistic path through the Republican-controlled House.
Lin ordered the parties not to file written responses to her questions before the hearing.