Federal Judge Orders Trump Administration to Lift Ban on Anthropic AI Technology for Federal Agencies

US District Judge Rita F. Lin in San Francisco ruled late Thursday that the Trump administration must lift its ban on Anthropic's AI technology for federal agencies, finding the Department of Defense's designation of the Claude chatbot maker as a supply-chain security risk was not adequately justified and was partly intended to make a public example of the company. The judge described the ban as illegal and baseless. The ruling is a significant legal win for Anthropic, though Bloomberg noted it does not immediately end the company's broader legal fight with the administration.

Separately, a federal judge denied President Trump's bid to move his already-decided New York hush-money criminal case to federal court, dealing a setback to his effort to overturn his conviction. In other administration actions, the US Treasury imposed sanctions targeting UAE branches of Egypt's Banque Misr over business dealings with Iran, part of ongoing efforts to isolate Tehran. The Trump administration also appealed a court ruling requiring payments to continue for the 16-billion-dollar Hudson Tunnel project.