A federal appeals court ruled 2-1 Friday against Anthropic’s challenge to the government’s supply-chain-risk designation, allowing the Pentagon to continue removing Claude models from its systems and to bar use of Anthropic products for Defense Department work.
The Washington case concerned a different rule from a federal judge’s California ruling this summer, which found the Pentagon acted illegally by punishing Anthropic for criticizing the department’s views on AI use. Writing for the majority, Judge Gregory G. Katsas said the Pentagon reasonably feared Anthropic might change Claude’s design to block national-security functions the department considered contractually authorized and necessary.
Anthropic said it respectfully disagreed and cited another federal court’s ruling that the government’s parallel designation was unlawful. The company said it remained confident in its position and was considering all options, including further review.
