A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., upheld the Pentagon's designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk, effectively blacklisting the company from defense contracts. The decision was made by Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, with Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson dissenting. This ruling is part of an ongoing legal battle between Anthropic, which runs the Claude AI platform, and the Pentagon over national security concerns. Despite losing this appeal, Anthropic remains confident in its position and considers further review options.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-27,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
On September 25, 2026, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against Anthropic, upholding the Pentagon's decision to blacklist the AI startup as a national security supply chain risk. This designation bars Anthropic from military contracts and restricts its technology use within the Defense Department. The court's 2-1 ruling supports the Pentagon’s stance that Anthropic's refusal to remove safety restrictions on its Claude model for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance was justified due to potential national security risks. Anthropic, which claims the designation has cost it billions in lost business, expressed disagreement with the decision but remains confident in pursuing further judicial review.
Written for “Pentagon Blacklists Anthropic” on 2026-10-05,
grounded in this article and the 7 other(s) covering the same event.
A federal appeals court in the District of Columbia upheld the Pentagon’s effective blacklisting of Anthropic in a 2-1 decision on Friday.
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court → uphold → Friday
The ruling is the latest moment in the feud between the War Department, which listed Anthropic as a supply chain risk in March, and the artificial intelligence company that runs the Claude platform.
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that → list → platform
“The Department had ample support for its conclusion that the continued integration of Claude into the Department’s information systems, by the Department or its contractors, presented a statutorily covered national-security risk,” Judge Gregory Katsas wrote in the majority opinion for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which Judge Neomi Rao joined.
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Rao → have → which
Katsas and Rao were nominated by President Donald Trump.
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Katsas → nominate → Trump
Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, who was nominated by former President George H.W. Bush, dissented.
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who → nominate → Bush
“We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision,” an Anthropic spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
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spokesperson → disagree → Examiner
“Another federal court has already held the government’s parallel designation unlawful.
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designation → hold → ?
We remain confident in our position and are considering all options, including further review.”
The supply-chain-risk designation is historically reserved for foreign companies and is designed to exclude companies from participating in defense contracts or supplying components for sensitive military systems if they have ties to foreign and potentially adversarial companies, states, or stateless actors.
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they → remain → companies
Anthropic filed two lawsuits to stop the designation, one in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and the other in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, because the Pentagon relied on two distinct designations to justify its overall decision.
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Pentagon → file → decision
Each case challenges one of those designations.
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case → challenge → designations
A judge in San Francisco ruled last month that one designation was illegal, while the D.C. appeals court ruling upheld the other on Friday.
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ruling → rule → Friday
The dispute began because Anthropic did not want Claude to be used for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons, neither of which department officials said they wanted to use it for, but the Pentagon also refuses to allow private companies the final say over how they use their programs.
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they → begin → programs
“The hammer of justice has smashed [Anthropic] arguments,” Michael said in response to the court’s ruling on Friday.
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Michael → smash → Friday
“They are a Supply Chain Risk to the defense industrial base serving the [War Department].
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They → serve → Department
Warfighters will sleep better knowing that no private company will insert their opinions in the chain of command.
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company → sleep → command
The Trump administration, including the president, has rebuked Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who penned an essay earlier this month calling for more guardrails on AI, titled “We must pace the frontier.”
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We → include → frontier
Amodei warned that industry leaders should “slow down” technological advancement, and OpenAI’s Sam Altman and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk both supported his comments.
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Altman → warn → comments
Amodei said that if left unchecked, AI’s “recursive self-improvement” could lead to a system where AI outpaces humans’ ability to control and check the systems it creates.
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it → say → systems
Trump wrote Monday in a post on Truth Social that his administration “has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things,’ like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel’ – and we will continue to do so!”
Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the way the military operates, in combat and in mundane and routine tasks. One main way in which the military uses AI is with the analysis of intelligence gathered from a wide array of entities and synthesizes it in a fraction of the time it would take a human to do the same.
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it → write → same
The Aporia
