Anthropic is not doing well in the appellate court in the Defense Department case!
GovInfoSecurity.com reported that “A majority of judges on a U.S. federal appeals court appeared disposed Tuesday to allowing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to bar artificial intelligence stalwart Anthropic from future military work for posing a risk to national security.” The May 19, 2026 article entitled “Judges Clash Over Pentagon's Anthropic Ban” (https://tinyurl.com/kccfrb73) included these comments:
Oral argument held Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was Anthropic's latest salvo to get the designation overturned, a fight fought in multiple courts over how far the government can go to pressure frontier AI companies that resist unrestricted military use of their models. The supply-chain risk designation gave military agencies six months to stop using Anthropic technology but leaves non-defense government and commercial uses largely untouched.
Anthropic attorney Kelly Dunbar argued before a three judge panel that the designation "defied congressionally mandated procedures, exceeded statutory limits and violated the Constitution." The Pentagon used a powerful national security tool to gain leverage in a dispute over how Claude could be used, she told Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, both appointed by President Donald Trump, and Judge Karen Henderson, a George W. Bush appointee.
"This court can’t review designation decisions" said Rao, who also noted that no national security risk designee has ever challenged the label in court. The best the court might be able to do, Rao said, is bar the Pentagon for again designating Anthropic a national security risk.
The government is arguing that the issue is not speech, but whether defense officials can trust a model provider whose own usage limits would allegedly disrupt military operations. Henderson appeared skeptical of the government's position, questioning whether the record supports treating Anthropic as a supply-chain threat rather than a company engaged in a contract dispute with the military.
"To me, this is just a spectacular overreach by the [Defense] Department," Henderson said.
Rao pressed Anthropic on the limits of judicial review in national security procurement decisions, suggesting the Pentagon may have the latitude to assess risk when frontier AI systems are deployed in military contexts where failures could carry operational consequences. Katsas also focused on model opacity and the pace of AI development.
Anthropic says its restrictions only apply to two high-level categories: systems that enable fully autonomous lethal weapons and mass domestic surveillance. It also has maintained that it cannot alter Claude once the model is deployed inside classified military environments. If the Pentagon does not want to use its technology, it can simply stop contracting with the company rather than attach a national security risk label with broader reputational consequences, the company has argued.
What do you think?