# Federal judge vacates US directives barring Anthropic use

_Published Friday, August 28, 2026 at 3:07 PM EDT · Policy, AI · Latest · Tier 1 — Major_

![A person's finger hovering over the Claude AI app's icon on a phone screen. — Primary](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/claude-app-1152x648.jpg)

A federal judge vacated Trump administration directives that had ordered federal agencies to stop using Anthropic products and barred defense contractors from doing business with the AI company. Judge Rita Lin ruled that the supply-chain-risk designation and related measures were unlawful retaliation after Anthropic declined to remove restrictions on lethal autonomous warfare and mass surveillance. The order requires the administration to rescind the directives. The ruling said Anthropic lacked the alleged backdoor access cited in the government's risk assessment.

## Sources

- [Ars Technica](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/trump-blacklisting-of-woke-anthropic-deemed-illegal-by-federal-judge/)

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Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/nDFSpp9GPGH5dUzjNNztGI
Published: 2026-08-28T19:07:10.759Z
Story chronology: 2026-08-28T18:07:55.000Z
Retrieved: 2026-10-14T01:47:40.455Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)