DC Circuit finds Pentagon justified in labeling Anthropic ‘supply chain risk’

A 2-1 D.C. Circuit panel upheld the Pentagon's designation of Anthropic as a ‘supply chain risk,’ rejecting the company's due process and First Amendment claims over restrictions Claude enforces on lethal autonomous warfare and mass surveillance. Judges Katsas and Rao, both Trump appointees, found Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had ‘ample support’ after Claude refused CDC infectious-disease queries in 2025 and a dispute arose over its use in an active overseas military operation.

Hegseth announced the blacklisting in March, barring Anthropic from doing business with any military contractor, saying the company's ‘ideological whims’ couldn't hold ‘America's warfighters hostage.’ Dissenting Judge Karen Henderson, a George H.W. Bush appointee, warned the ruling lets the Pentagon brand any contractor a national security threat simply for declining to permit ‘any functions the department deems necessary.’ Anthropic says a separate federal judge found a parallel decision unlawful and is weighing its next move.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.