Appeals Court Upholds Pentagon's Supply-Chain-Risk Designation of Anthropic

2026-09-25 · Governance

A divided D.C. Circuit panel ruled that the Pentagon lawfully designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk after the company refused to drop restrictions on military uses of Claude.

In a 2-1 ruling on September 25, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied Anthropic's petitions against the designation, which bars the Defense Department and its contractors from using Claude. Anthropic had refused to relax contract terms barring use of Claude for lethal autonomous warfare or domestic surveillance. Judge Gregory Katsas, joined by Judge Neomi Rao, wrote that the department had ample support for its conclusion. Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson dissented.

The ruling is separate from a California case in which a federal judge found the Pentagon acted illegally in punishing Anthropic. The D.C. ruling covers only the Defense Department. Anthropic said it respectfully disagrees and is considering all options, including further review.

For SIRDA, the case bears on military autonomy: a developer's own restrictions on autonomous weapons use are now, in one U.S. court's view, grounds for exclusion from defense work. It shows who holds power over military AI use when a developer and a government disagree.

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