![\"Defense](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-speaks-to-members-of-the-medi-7GXPOM4TWNB65KBZQJXVPMPEDE.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Trump administration is appealing a judge’s order blocking the US government from taking punitive measures against artificial intelligence firm Anthropic after a dispute with the Pentagon over military use of AI.<\/p>\n
Department of Justice attorneys filed a notice in San Francisco federal court on Thursday of their intention to appeal last week’s ruling by US District Judge Rita Lin. <\/p>\n
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which will review Lin’s order, set an April 30 deadline for the Justice Department to file documents outlining its reasons why the decision should be overturned.<\/p>\n
Lin last week said she was blocking the Pentagon from labelling Anthropic a supply chain risk. <\/p>\n
She also said she was blocking enforcement of US president Donald Trump\u2019s social media directive ordering all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic and its chatbot Claude.<\/p>\n
Lin said the \u201cbroad punitive measures\u201d taken against the AI company by the Trump administration and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared arbitrary, capricious and could \u201ccripple Anthropic,\u201d particularly Hegseth\u2019s use of a rare military authority that\u2019s previously been directed at foreign adversaries.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks to members of the media during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing in the governing statute 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,\u201d Lin wrote.<\/p>\n
A top Pentagon official last week called Lin’s order a \u201cdisgrace\u201d. <\/p>\n
US Defence Undersecretary Emil Michael, the Pentagon\u2019s chief technology officer, said on social media it would disrupt Hegseth’s \u201cfull ability to conduct military operations with the partners it chooses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lin had stayed her order for a week, which gave time for the Pentagon to take the case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. <\/p>\n
She had also said her order doesn\u2019t require the Pentagon to use Anthropic\u2019s products or prevent it from transitioning to other AI providers.<\/p>\n
Anthropic has also filed a separate and more narrow case that is still pending in the federal appeals court in Washington, DC. <\/p>\n
That case involves a different rule the Pentagon is using to try to declare Anthropic a supply chain risk.<\/p>\n
Trump and Hegseth publicly announced their actions against Anthropic on February 27 after negotiations over a defence contract went sour over the company\u2019s attempt to prevent its AI technology from being deployed in fully autonomous weapons or surveillance of Americans. <\/p>\n
The Pentagon had argued that it should be able to use Claude in any way it deems lawful.<\/p>\n
A number of third parties had filed legal briefs supporting Anthropic\u2019s case, including Microsoft, industry trade groups, rank-and-file tech workers, retired US military leaders and a group of Catholic theologians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration is appealing a judge’s order blocking the US government from taking punitive measures against artificial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,65,111,139,64,69,145],"class_list":["post-364506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-donald-trump","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-north-america","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}