Tonight in Your Rights: The bots of war
Anthropic sues to block Pete Hegseth's efforts to "destroy" the company's value because it insisted upon AI safety in warfare.
All Rise News intends to cover a hearing in Anthropic’s newly filed lawsuit tomorrow afternoon.
In contracting with the Pentagon, Anthropic drew two red lines.
The Department of Defense could not use the company’s artificial intelligence to autonomously select weapons and targets during war or use the code for the purposes of mass surveillance. Those baseline principles of AI safety were enough for Secretary Pete Hegseth to designate Anthropic a “supply-chain risk,” a label that threatens to “destroy” the $380 billion company’s value.
Anthropic sued the Department of Defense, Hegseth, and dozens of other U.S. government agencies and representatives in federal court to avoid that fate on Monday.
“These actions are unprecedented and unlawful,” Anthropic’s complaint states. “The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech. No federal statute authorizes the actions taken here. Anthropic turns to the judiciary as a last resort to vindicate its rights and halt the Executive’s unlawful campaign of retaliation.”
Public reactions to this story:
In the wake of Hegseth’s retribution campaign, some consumers have been voting with their feet by using Anthropic’s Claude for their AI services. Musician Katy Perry shared a screenshot of her subscription on social media after the spat erupted.
Hegseth’s “supply-chain risk” label would prevent any “contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military” from having a relationship with Anthropic, a decree that could cost the company “billions” of dollars. The United States has never designated a domestic company a supply-chain risk, typically reserved for enterprises linked to hostile foreign powers, like Huawei.
Along with effectively sanctioning Anthropic, Donald Trump and Hegseth tore into the company on social media. Hegseth called the company’s CEO Dario Amodie a “liar” with a “God-complex” who “is ok putting our nation’s safety at risk,” and Trump called Anthropic a “RADICAL LEFT, WOKE COMPANY” of “Leftwing nut jobs.”
In reality, Anthropic made clear that their boundaries were based in practicality as much as ethics, as their code wasn’t equipped to “function reliably or safely if used to support lethal autonomous warfare.”
“These usage restrictions are therefore rooted in Anthropic’s unique understanding of Claude’s risks and limitations—including Claude’s capacity to make mistakes and its unprecedented ability to accelerate and automate analysis of massive amounts of data, including data about American citizens,” the lawsuit states.
Anthropic is represented by major law firm WilmerHale, which successfully fended off the Trump administration’s attempt to retaliate against the firm for its affiliation with former Special Counsel Robert Mueller. WilmerHale was one of scores of major law firms targeted by Donald Trump for retribution because of their affiliations and cases.
Although several firms capitulated, WilmerHale fought back along with Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, and Susman Godfrey, successfully obtaining rulings blocking Trump’s executive orders targeting them. Judges found that Trump violated the firms’ First Amendment right to free speech and association, Fifth Amendment right to due process, and the public’s Sixth Amendment right to access counsel.
Some of those decisions are now being used as precedents to persuade a federal judge to block Hegseth’s designation.
“The challenged actions put every company and potential government contractor on notice that speaking out about the limitations of its own product or services, or declining to accede to a government demand that the company abandon its foundational principles, can lead to swift and punishing retaliation,” the company’s motion for a preliminary injunction states. “The public has a profound interest in ensuring that the government cannot abuse federal contracting authority to punish private companies in that way.”
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin, a Joe Biden appointee, scheduled a speedy status conference about the case’s next steps, scheduled for Tues., March 10 at 3 p.m. Pacific Time.
All Rise News intends to cover the proceedings remotely.
Judge strikes down Habba’s “triumvirate” of successors
The trio of so-called “special attorneys” who replaced Alina Habba as the District of New Jersey’s top prosecutor were also appointed unlawfully and unconstitutionally, a federal judge ruled in a blistering opinion.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann, a registered Republican nominated to the bench by Barack Obama, disqualified Habba from her U.S. Attorney post last year in a ruling affirmed by the Third Circuit.
The judge made clear that all U.S. Attorneys must face Senate confirmation in keeping with the Appointments Clause of the Constitution or ascend to their position in a way that conforms with the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. Trump’s Department of Justice still hasn’t gotten the message.
Instead, Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed what Brann described as a “triumvirate” of unlawful appointees, posing the risk that thousands of criminal cases can be overturned.
“With all these options remaining, why does the fate of thousands of criminal prosecutions in this District potentially rest on the legitimacy of an unprecedented and byzantine leadership structure?” Brann asked in a 130-page memorandum opinion.
“The Government tells us: the President doesn’t like that he cannot simply appoint whomever he wants,” he answered. “Notwithstanding the chaos that pervades criminal prosecutions in this District, and without regard to the possibility that scores of dangerous criminals could have their cases dismissed or convictions eventually reversed, ‘the [E]xecutive branch, at least right now, is not prepared to ... use [the legal] options.’”
Judge Brann paused his ruling to allow for an appeal, but he fired a shot across the bow about the consequences of their continued conduct: “Furthermore, the Government is warned that any further attempts to unlawfully fill the office will result in dismissals of pending cases.”
Read the ruling in full here.
Other legal news
Trump’s FBI eyes Arizona ballots: Arizona's state Senate President Warren Petersen announced on social media that he complied with a federal grand jury subpoena to provide certain 2020 election records related to an audit of Maricopa County. “The FBI has the records,” Petersen wrote.
Judge finds DHS made stops “based on ethnicity or race,” not probable cause: U.S. District Judge Eric C. Tostrud, a Trump appointee in Minnesota, found that federal agents “adopted a policy” of stops based on ethnicity or race rather than probable cause.
The judge declined to issue an injunction because of the announced drawdown for “Operation Metro Surge,” but legal expert Ryan Goodman believed that the details of the judge’s findings of fact and conclusions of law boded well for the plaintiffs.
“Big win for plaintiffs. Writing is on the wall,” Goodman wrote in a social media thread dissecting the ruling.
Grateful that Anthropic is fighting against this unprecedented and potentially disastrous overreach by the Trump regime, which wants the unrestricted ability to (mis)use their product in the conduct of fully-automated warfare, and mass surveillance of the American public.
Thank you...this wrap up was clear and to the point that those of us without extensive leagal knowledge can understand... most of the judges in this country have steel spines unlike most of congress...so grateful to them