Anthropic loses appeals court bid to temporarily block DOD ruling
New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin and Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic, speak onstage at the 2025 New York Times Dealbook Summit at Jazz at Lincoln Center on December 3, 2025 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. Wednesday Anthropic’s stay request denied In the lawsuit he filed against the Ministry of Defense.
The AI startup sought to take action to stop it being blacklisted by the Pentagon and prevent further financial and reputational losses as the case progressed. The ruling comes after a judge in San Francisco federal court late last month, in a separate but related case, granted Anthropic a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from banning the use of Claude.
The Department of Defense declared Anthropic a supply chain risk in early March; This amounts to an allegation that the use of the company’s technology threatens US national security. The label requires defense contractors to certify that they are not using Anthropic’s Claude AI models in their work with the military.
“In our view, the fair balance here tips in favor of the government,” the appeals court said in its decision. he said. “On the one hand, there is the relatively limited risk of financial harm to a single private company. On the other hand, there is the judicial management of how and through whom the War Department secured vital AI technology during an active military conflict.”
There was anthropic asked the appeals court to review In the Pentagon’s determination, it was stated that this was a form of retaliation that was unconstitutional, arbitrary, capricious and did not comply with the procedures required by law. a filing.
In Wednesday’s decision, the court acknowledged that Anthropic “is likely to suffer some degree of irreparable harm if it remains” but acknowledged that the company’s interests “appear to be primarily financial in nature.” While the company claimed that the Ministry of Defense stood in the way of the right to freedom of expression, the order stated, “Anthropic does not show that its speech has been frozen during the continuation of this case.”
DoD relied on two different definitions (10 USC § 3252 and 41 USC § 4713) to justify its supply chain risk action, which must be challenged in two separate courts. 41 USC § 4713 definition falls within the jurisdiction of the court of appeals in Washington, D.C.
Anthropic’s lawsuit against the Pentagon in March followed a dramatic few weeks in Washington, D.C., between the Department of Defense and one of the world’s most valuable private companies.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared Anthropic a supply chain risk in an X-related post in late February, and the Department of Defense soon notified the company of this official decision via a letter. Anthropic became the first American company to receive this designation, which has historically been reserved for foreign competitors.
Shortly before Hegseth’s post, President Donald Trump wrote: A Real Social post Ordering federal agencies to “immediately cease” all use of Anthropic’s technology. He said there would be a six-month phase-out period for institutions such as the Department of Defense.
The Trump administration’s actions surprised many officials in Washington, where Anthropic’s technology has been integrated into numerous institutions. The company was the first to deploy its models across the Department of Defense’s classified networks and has been praised for its ability to integrate with existing Defense contractors such as Palantir.
Antropik signed 200 million dollars The contract was signed with the Pentagon in July, but when the company began negotiating Claude’s deployment to the Department of Defense GenAI.mil Talks stalled on the AI platform in September.
The Department of Defense wanted Anthropic to grant the Pentagon unrestricted access to its models for all lawful purposes, while seeking assurances that Anthropic’s technology would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance.
Unable to reach an agreement, the duo took the dispute to court.
Because of the damage Anthropic would suffer, the appeals court said it agreed with the company that “a significant expedition was necessary.”
— CNBC’s Dan Mangan contributed to this report.
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