Trump blacklisting of “woke” Anthropic deemed illegal by federal judge

联邦法官裁定特朗普政府将“觉醒派”Anthropic列入黑名单的行为违法

The Trump administration’s blacklisting of Anthropic was illegal, a federal judge ruled in an order vacating government directives against the use of the firm’s AI technology. 联邦法官在一项裁决中宣布，特朗普政府将 Anthropic 列入黑名单的行为违法，并撤销了政府禁止使用该公司人工智能技术的指令。

The government illegally retaliated against Anthropic by designating it a supply-chain risk to national security, said yesterday’s ruling by Judge Rita Lin in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. 美国加利福尼亚北区联邦地区法院法官丽塔·林（Rita Lin）在昨日的裁决中指出，政府将 Anthropic 指定为国家安全供应链风险，是对该公司进行的非法报复。

The maker of Claude AI technology was barred by the US after it refused to drop restrictions on the use of its products for lethal autonomous warfare and mass surveillance of Americans, the ruling said. 裁决书称，Claude AI 技术的开发商 Anthropic 在拒绝取消对其产品用于致命自主战争和大规模监控美国公民的限制后，遭到了美国的封杀。

“The undisputed record shows that the challenged actions constituted unlawful retaliation in violation of the First Amendment,” Lin wrote in an order that granted key portions of Anthropic’s motion for summary judgment. “无可争议的记录显示，这些受质疑的行动构成了违反宪法第一修正案的非法报复，”林法官在批准 Anthropic 简易判决动议关键部分的命令中写道。

As Lin noted, Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “ordered all federal agencies to permanently stop using Anthropic’s products, and banned all defense contractors from doing any business with Anthropic, even if unrelated to the military.” 正如林法官所指出的，特朗普和国防部长皮特·海格塞斯（Pete Hegseth）“下令所有联邦机构永久停止使用 Anthropic 的产品，并禁止所有国防承包商与 Anthropic 进行任何业务往来，即使这些业务与军事无关。”

Lin vacated those government actions and ordered the Trump administration to rescind the directives that she deemed她 deemed illegal. 林法官撤销了这些政府行动，并命令特朗普政府废除她认为违法的指令。

National security is not blank check to retaliate

国家安全不是报复的“空白支票”

“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,” Lin wrote, referring to the Trump administration’s preferred name for the Department of Defense. “尽管战争部（注：特朗普政府对国防部的称呼）无疑有权选择其心仪的 AI 供应商，但证据表明，对 Anthropic 实施的广泛限制措施是非法且毫无根据的，”林法官写道。

“The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics,” she added. “空洞地援引国家安全作为借口，并不能成为惩罚和报复政府批评者的‘空白支票’，”她补充道。

The Trump administration provided only a “slim” justification to the court, Lin wrote, stating that the federal defendants “have now backed away from the thrust of their risk assessment, which relied on Anthropic having backdoor access to its technology once deployed in a national security system. It is now clear that Anthropic undisputedly lacks any such access and that, as Defendants concede, Anthropic’s technology is itself no riskier to the national security than any other ‘black box’ artificial intelligence model.” 林法官写道，特朗普政府向法院提供的理由非常“薄弱”。她指出，联邦被告“现在已经放弃了其风险评估的核心论点，即 Anthropic 在其技术部署到国家安全系统后拥有后门访问权限。现在很清楚，Anthropic 无可争议地不具备任何此类访问权限，正如被告所承认的那样，Anthropic 的技术本身并不比任何其他‘黑箱’人工智能模型对国家安全构成更大的风险。”

Anthropic sued the Trump administration in March, saying the government blacklisted it in retaliation after Anthropic refused to let its Claude AI models be used for autonomous warfare and mass surveillance of Americans. Anthropic 于今年 3 月起诉特朗普政府，称政府将其列入黑名单是出于报复，因为该公司拒绝让其 Claude AI 模型被用于自主战争和对美国公民的大规模监控。

Anthropic said the First Amendment gives it “the right to express its views—both publicly and to the government—about the limitations of its own AI services and important issues of AI safety,” and that the government process for designating it a supply-chain risk did not comply with procedures mandated by Congress. Anthropic 表示，宪法第一修正案赋予其“表达观点的权利——无论是公开还是向政府表达——关于其自身 AI 服务的局限性以及 AI 安全的重要议题”，并指出政府将其指定为供应链风险的过程不符合国会规定的程序。

The White House responded to Anthropic’s lawsuit by saying that “President Trump will never allow a radical left, woke company to jeopardize our national security by dictating how the greatest and most powerful military in the world operates.” 白宫回应 Anthropic 的诉讼称：“特朗普总统绝不会允许一家激进左翼的‘觉醒派’公司通过左右世界上最伟大、最强大的军队如何运作，来危及我们的国家安全。”

Two courts probe blacklist

两家法院审查黑名单

The Trump administration won an early ruling from Trump-appointed judges in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which denied Anthropic’s emergency motion for a stay. 特朗普政府在哥伦比亚特区巡回上诉法院赢得了由特朗普任命的法官做出的初步裁决，该法院驳回了 Anthropic 的紧急暂缓执行动议。

But the DC Circuit appeals court went on to hold oral arguments and is still reviewing the case while the sides continue to submit briefs. 但哥伦比亚特区巡回上诉法院随后举行了口头辩论，目前仍在审理此案，双方仍在提交法律文书。

Anthropic had meanwhile also sued in the Northern District of California and won multiple rulings from Lin, a Biden appointee. 与此同时，Anthropic 也在加利福尼亚北区联邦地区法院提起诉讼，并从拜登任命的林法官那里赢得了多项裁决。

Lin issued a preliminary injunction on March 26, prohibiting the government from implementing the Trump and Hegseth orders. 林法官于 3 月 26 日发布了初步禁令，禁止政府执行特朗普和海格塞斯的命令。

The preliminary-injunction ruling said that nothing in the relevant US law “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.” 该初步禁令裁决指出，美国相关法律中没有任何内容“支持那种奥威尔式的观念，即一家美国公司仅仅因为表达与政府不同的意见，就可能被贴上美国潜在对手和破坏者的标签。”

The March injunction did not require the Trump administration to use Anthropic products as long as its “actions are consistent with applicable regulations, statutes, and constitutional provisions.” 3 月份的禁令并未要求特朗普政府必须使用 Anthropic 的产品，只要其“行动符合适用的法规、法令及宪法条款”即可。

Lin yesterday ruled that the Trump administration actions were arbitrary and capricious, violating Administrative Procedure Act requirements that govern how federal agencies may impose regulations. 林法官昨日裁定，特朗普政府的行为是武断且反复无常的，违反了《行政程序法》中关于联邦机构如何实施监管的要求。

She found that Anthropic does not meet the legal definition of a supply-chain risk, which is limited to “the risk that an adversary may sabotage, maliciously introduce unwanted function, or otherwise subvert… a covered system.” 她认定，Anthropic 不符合供应链风险的法律定义，该定义仅限于“对手可能破坏、恶意引入不需要的功能或以其他方式颠覆……受保护系统的风险”。

“The plain text of the statute is directed at covert acts or hacks, not overt, public positions regarding contract terms,” Lin wrote. “该法规的明文规定针对的是隐蔽行为或黑客攻击，而非关于合同条款的公开立场，”林法官写道。

Tech industry welcomes ruling

科技行业欢迎这一裁决

The Trump administration could appeal the ruling and is continuing to make its case in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. We contacted the White House and will update this article if it provides a comment. 特朗普政府可能会对该裁决提出上诉，并继续在哥伦比亚特区巡回上诉法院进行辩护。我们已联系白宫，如果收到评论，我们将更新本文。

The Computer & Communications Industry Association, a lobby group for tech firms, said it is “encouraged by this outcome, as this case matters to anyone doing business with the US government. By bypassing standard procurement to target Anthropic in this fashion, the Pentagon’s action deeply concerned any company that has contracts with the government.” 科技公司游说团体“计算机与通信行业协会”（CCIA）表示，对这一结果感到“鼓舞”，因为此案关系到所有与美国政府有业务往来的企业。“五角大楼通过绕过标准采购程序以这种方式针对 Anthropic，令所有与政府有合同的公司深感担忧。”

Government use of Anthropic hasn’t completely stopped. “Despite the ban, government agencies continued using Anthropic’s tools as the White House and the company ‌gradually mended ties ahead of Anthropic’s planned IPO,” Reuters wrote. 政府对 Anthropic 的使用并未完全停止。路透社报道称：“尽管有禁令，但随着白宫与该公司在 Anthropic 计划 IPO 前逐渐修复关系，政府机构仍在继续使用 Anthropic 的工具。”

Anthropic said in a statement provided to Ars that “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.” Anthropic 在提供给 Ars 的一份声明中表示：“我们欢迎法院关于供应链风险认定违法的裁决。我们将继续专注于与政府进行富有成效的合作，利用人工智能保障国家安全，让所有美国人都能从这项技术中受益。”