D.C. Circuit rejects Anthropic's challenge to Department of War exclusion of Claude from its supply chain
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Summary
On Sep 25, 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decided Anthropic PBC's consolidated petitions for review of a Department of War decision to exclude Claude from its supply chain under 41 U.S.C. § 4713. In an opinion by Judge Katsas, the court rejected Anthropic's arbitrary-action, statutory and constitutional challenges. It held the Department had ample support for finding a covered national-security risk, that less intrusive measures were not reasonably available, and that any error in the timing of notice was harmless. It rejected the due-process and First Amendment claims. Judge Henderson dissented. The court also distinguished a separate Northern District of California decision that set aside a designation under 10 U.S.C. § 3252.
Why it matters
The decision leaves in place the Department of War's exclusion of Claude from its systems and contractors' use. It addresses how the supply chain statute applies to an AI developer that maintains contractual and model-level use restrictions, and it affects Anthropic PBC and the Department's contractors. Judge Henderson filed a dissenting opinion.
Claims in complaints are allegations that have not been proven unless a court has ruled on them.
- Parties involved
- United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; Anthropic PBC; Department of War; Palantir Technologies, Inc.
- Case number
- No. 26-1049
- Case number
- 26-1162
- Primary source
- storage.courtlistener.com (storage.courtlistener.com)
Source retrieved: . Sources are often in other languages; links open the original. - Coverage
- Topics
- Government use of AI · General AI governance · Frontier models & safety