Anthropic asks full appeals court to rehear Pentagon supply-chain risk case
Anthropic has asked the full US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to rehear a 2-1 panel ruling from 25 September that upheld the Pentagon's designation of the company as a supply-chain risk to US national security, Bloomberg reported. Anthropic argues the majority let the Defense Department act without any pre-designation process and that clear evidence shows the designation retaliated against its public statements on AI safety; Judge Gregory Katsas wrote the majority opinion with Neomi Rao, and Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson dissented. In a parallel California case, Judge Rita F. Lin ruled for Anthropic in August, ordering the government to lift a ban on federal agencies using its technology and calling the Pentagon's motive retaliatory. The dispute began when contract talks collapsed over Anthropic's demand for assurances that Claude would not be used for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons; the Pentagon's CTO said in September that about 90% of classified AI workload had moved off Anthropic.
The case could help decide whether the US government or private labs control AI safety guardrails, and how far vendors can attach safety conditions to military contracts.