Anthropic isn't done fighting the Pentagon. The company filed a petition on Tuesday asking the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., to rehear its challenge to the Defense Department's decision to brand it a national-security "supply chain risk," CNBC reports.
The label came in March under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, after talks over how the military could use Claude broke down. It blocks defense contractors from using Anthropic's models in their Pentagon work. In September, a 2-1 D.C. Circuit panel upheld it, rejecting Anthropic's argument that the ban was arbitrary, unauthorized and unconstitutional.
Anthropic's lawyers frame the designation as punishment for its safety rules. The company was flagged "because it declined to permit its models to be used for mass surveillance of Americans or lethal autonomous warfare and publicly explained those AI-safety commitments," the petition says, adding that the panel ignored "straightforward evidence the designation was retaliation for Anthropic's speech about AI safety."
Anthropic does have something to point to. In a parallel case, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled in August that the Pentagon violated the company's First Amendment rights and that the label amounted to illegal retaliation. Two courts landing in opposite places is the strongest argument Anthropic has for getting another hearing.
It's a long way from July 2025, when Anthropic signed a $200 million contract with the Pentagon. A Pentagon spokesperson told CNBC the agency doesn't comment on pending litigation, and Anthropic declined to comment beyond the filing.
— via CNBC