Overview
- Anthropic filed a petition for rehearing en banc on Tuesday asking the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to re‑examine a September panel ruling that upheld the Pentagon’s supply‑chain risk label.
- The D.C. Circuit panel rejected Anthropic’s claims that the designation was arbitrary and unconstitutional in a 2–1 decision, with Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson dissenting.
- The Pentagon applied the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act, known as FASCSA, in early 2026 to label Anthropic a supply‑chain risk, a move that prevents Defense Department personnel and contractors from using the company’s Claude models.
- Anthropic argues the label punished the company for public safety commitments that ban use of its models for domestic mass surveillance and lethal autonomous weapons, and its petition says the panel failed to address First Amendment and due process issues.
- The case now sits with conflicting court outcomes after a California judge found related Pentagon actions unlawful in August, and the D.C. Circuit en banc decision or a later Supreme Court review could reshape how national‑security designations apply to U.S. AI firms and affect Pentagon procurement and company speech.