Lawsuit: US Can't Block Anthropic Models With Export Controls That 'Don't Exist'

Legion LegalTech, an AI technology company that builds drafting and case-management tools for lawyers, sued the U.S. government on June 23, seeking to vacate a Bureau of Industry and Security directive that forced Anthropic to suspend customer access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against President Donald Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Luntuck and BIS Undersecretary Jeffrey Kessler, argues the June 12 is-informed letter exceeded statutory authority under the Export Control Reform Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Legion said the order was arbitrary and capricious and that no operative provision of the Commerce Control List classifies access to a hosted AI model or its inferential text output as a controlled item. The company quoted the principle that "Commerce cannot enforce a control that does not exist." It asked the court to restore Anthropic customers' access to the models. Spokespeople for Commerce and BIS did not respond to requests for comment, according to Export Compliance Daily.