Appeals Court Upholds Pentagon Exclusion of Anthropic From Contracts

A federal appeals court ruled 2-1 that the Trump administration may exclude Anthropic from Pentagon contracts, finding the Defense Department had adequate grounds to designate the company’s Claude AI a national-security supply-chain risk. The majority said Claude’s built-in restrictions had prevented it from carrying out some government-requested tasks and that a dispute over its use in a military operation raised uncertainty about the model’s availability. Anthropic had sought assurances its technology would not be used for fully autonomous lethal weapons or mass domestic surveillance, while the department insisted on being able to use it for all lawful purposes. The court also rejected Anthropic’s due-process and First Amendment claims, concluding that the company received notice and a chance to challenge the decision and that the exclusion stemmed from its refusal to accept a contract term the department considered essential.