The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2‑1 that the Pentagon had adequate grounds to label Anthropic a national‑security supply chain risk under the Supply Chain Security Act. The majority opinion, written by Judge Gregory Katsas and joined by Judge Neomi Rao, rejected Anthropic’s argument that the designation was arbitrary, unauthorized, or unconstitutional, while Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, appointed by George H. W. Bush, dissented.
This image illustrates the appeals court's decision regarding Anthropic's supply chain risk designation, which is the central topic of the article.
The court’s decision stems from a March 2026 Pentagon determination that Anthropic posed a supply chain risk after negotiations over deploying its Claude models on the DOD’s GenAI.mil AI platform broke down; the Defense Department sought unrestricted access to the models for all lawful purposes, whereas Anthropic wanted assurances the technology would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance.
Although the ruling upholds the second of two designations used to justify the ban, a San Francisco federal judge had previously vacated the first designation, and the appeals court stayed the effect of its decision to allow Anthropic to seek a rehearing, request an en banc review, or petition the Supreme Court. Anthropic has said it respects the court but disagrees and is considering all further legal options.