Artificial Intelligence

A First Amendment Right Not To Use AI for Evil?

Anthropic sues the federal government—and kicks off a debate about free speech for artificial intelligence systems.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 3.11.2026 12:15 PM

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(Illustration: Midjourney)

Anthropic is suing the federal government over its response to the company refusing to remove safeguards that prevent Anthropic's artificial intelligence system, Claude, from being used for mass domestic surveillance and killer robots.

In a lawsuit filed Monday, it accuses the Trump administration of illegal retaliation. "The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech," states the complaint.

The suit has kicked off a new round of debate about free speech for AI systems more broadly, in addition to raising critical questions about the government's ability to compel tech companies to act in ways that company leaders consider unethical.

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'Public Castigation' and Retaliation

"When Anthropic held fast to its judgment that Claude cannot safely or reliably be used for autonomous lethal warfare and mass surveillance of Americans, the President directed every federal agency to 'IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic's technology'—even though the [Department of Defense] had previously agreed to those same conditions," states Anthropic's complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. "Hours later, the Secretary of War directed his Department to designate Anthropic a 'Supply-Chain Risk to National Security,' and further directed that 'effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic.'" (For more background on all this, see here and here.)

Rather than simply ending Anthropic's military contract over this dispute, the Trump administration went on a campaign of "public castigation," complains Anthropic.

Trump called it a "RADICAL LEFT, WOKE COMPANY" full of "Leftwing nut jobs" and directed "EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic's technology." A top Department of Defense official called Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei "a liar" with a "God-complex" who was trying "to personally control the US Military" and was "ok putting our nation's safety at risk."

This was followed up by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declaring Anthropic a supply-chain risk and federal agencies across the board terminating their contracts with the company.

I don't think there's any disputing that this was an absurd and bullying overreaction, injurious to free markets and unbecoming of a free and democratic country. No company should be compelled to let the U.S. military use its tech tools for whatever authorities want, and no company should be retaliated against for this refusal.

But the grounds on which Anthropic is suing are interesting—and controversial. The company argues that in addition to violating federal administrative law, the administration had attacked its "core First Amendment freedoms."

"The Constitution confers on Anthropic 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," states its complaint. "The government does not have to agree with those views. Nor does it have to use........

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