Overview
- - The D.C. Circuit, ruling Wednesday, denied Anthropic’s emergency bid to pause the Pentagon’s 41 U.S.C. §4713 designation and set oral argument for May 19.
- - The designation blocks Anthropic from new Defense Department work and forces contractors to certify they are not using Claude in Pentagon projects, with a broader government blacklist possible after interagency review.
- - A separate March 26 order from a San Francisco judge blocked a different Pentagon action under 10 U.S.C. §3252, creating split rulings that leave the §4713 label intact but pause other directives.
- - The appeals panel said the balance of harms favors the government, citing risks to military operations during an active conflict and viewing Anthropic’s injuries as largely financial, while the company alleges First Amendment retaliation and lack of due process.
- - The cases mark the first public use of these supply-chain risk tools against a U.S. AI vendor, raising legal and commercial stakes as the Pentagon transitions systems to other providers and the industry warns of business uncertainty.