A federal appeals court sided with the Pentagon in its fight with Anthropic, ruling that the artificial intelligence company is a supply chain risk and the Defense Department can bar its products from its systems.
The dispute erupted in February after the company objected to the potential use of its AI products such as Claude for mass surveillance or autonomous attack drone missions.
The Trump administration said Anthropic’s policy endangers national security and declared it a supply chain risk. The company said the Pentagon’s response was arbitrary, unauthorized by the government and unconstitutional.
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But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the Pentagon was acting within its prerogative when it banned Anthropic products.
“The [Defense] Department had ample support for its conclusion that the continued integration of Claude into the Department’s information systems, by the Department or its contractors, presented a statutorily covered national security risk,” the court said in its 2-1 decision Friday in favor of the Pentagon.
The court found that Anthropic encodes restrictions into Claude that prevent the system from performing tasks that the company wants to prevent.
“On more than one occasion, these restrictions have stopped Claude from performing tasks requested by government users,” Judge Gregory G. Katsas wrote in the majority opinion. Both Judge Katsas and Judge Neomi Rao, who formed the majority, were nominated by President Trump. The sole dissenter, Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, was nominated by President George H. W. Bush.
“And recently, a dispute arose over whether the contractual prohibitions barred the use of Claude in an ongoing overseas military operation, leaving the Department uncertain whether Claude would perform as needed and intended.”
The court also found that Anthropic’s constitutional complaints were without merit. Its due-process claim doesn’t apply because the Pentagon promptly notified it of the exclusion and its rationale and gave the company a “fair opportunity” to contest the policy.
Anthropic’s freedom of speech was not impaired because the Pentagon ban was over the company’s refusal to agree to a contract term that the Department of Defense deemed essential, not the company’s support for greater government regulation of AI technology, the court said.
“Today’s DC Circuit Court ruling completely validates the Department’s position,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell wrote in a social media post.
An Anthropic spokesperson said in a written statement the company “respectfully disagrees” with the court’s decision. “Another federal court has already held the government’s parallel designation unlawful,” the statement said. “We remain confident in our position and are considering all options, including further review.”
Anthropic’s products are not barred from the federal government as a whole under the ruling.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
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