Robyn N. Burrows, Michael J. Montalbano, and Justin A. Chiarodo ●
On September 25, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued its much-anticipated decision in Anthropic PBC v. U.S. Department of War, No. 26-1049, upholding the Department of War’s (“DOW”) exclusion of Anthropic’s Claude artificial intelligence (“AI”) models from its supply chain under the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018 (“FASCSA”), 41 U.S.C. § 4713. The ruling means the Government may continue its efforts to require contractors to cease the use of Anthropic as part of the performance of federal contracts. This post summarizes the decision and steps contractors should consider taking in response.
Background
As we covered in our prior blog post, the dispute between Anthropic and the federal government began with a contract disagreement over AI usage restrictions (Anthropic held a $200 million Pentagon contract and was the first frontier AI company to deploy models on classified government networks). Anthropic maintained two “red lines”: it refused to allow its Claude AI model to be used for mass domestic surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons systems. When the DOW demanded that Anthropic agree to “all lawful use” of its technology without these restrictions, Anthropic refused. On February 27, 2026, President Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on social media their intention to remove Anthropic from the federal supply chain.
On March 3, 2026, Secretary Hegseth issued a formal determination under FASCSA to take covered procurement actions against Anthropic, finding that the continued integration of Claude into DOW systems presented a “significant supply chain risk,” that removal was “necessary to protect national security,” and that no “less intrusive measures” were “reasonably available.” The Secretary also determined that an “urgent national security interest” required immediate action. The DOW’s Chief Information Officer then ordered removal of all Anthropic products from DOW systems within 180 days and prohibited contractors from using Anthropic products in DOW work.
Continue reading “D.C. Circuit Upholds the Anthropic Ban: What It Means for Federal Contractors”
