Judge Presses Trump's Lawyers on Whether Canceling Contracts Over Criticism of the President Would Violate the First Amendment

At a July 30, 2026 summary-judgment hearing in Anthropic's lawsuit against the Trump administration, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin told Justice Department lawyers that the government's record 'in some ways has gotten worse' since she issued a preliminary injunction. Lin asked whether it would be unconstitutional for an administration to announce it was terminating every defense contract with anyone who had ever publicly criticized the president. DOJ attorney James Harlow declined to say yes, responding 'I think that's not this case'; Lin replied, 'I'm surprised that you can't give a yes to what seems to me to be an easy question.'

The suit stems from Trump's February directive that every federal agency cease using Anthropic's technology, issued after the company's chief executive explained why its model would not be used for autonomous lethal warfare or mass surveillance of Americans, and from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's follow-on directive and March 3 designation of the company as a national security risk. The government has already conceded that the Hegseth directive had 'no legal effect.'

Lin ended the roughly 90-minute hearing without ruling.