Anthropic loses appeals court bid to block Pentagon blacklisting temporarily

Source: CNBC

Published Wed, Apr 8 2026 6:08 PM EDT Updated 2 Min Ago


A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday denied Anthropic’s request for a stay in its lawsuit against the Department of Defense. The artificial intelligence startup sought the action to pause its blacklisting by the Pentagon and prevent further monetary and reputational harm as the case unfolds. The ruling comes after a judge in San Francisco federal court late last month, in a separate case, granted Anthropic a preliminary injunction that bars the Trump administration from enforcing a ban on the use of Claude.

The DOD declared Anthropic a supply chain risk in early March, meaning that use of the company’s technology purportedly threatens U.S. national security. The label requires defense contractors to certify that they don’t use Anthropic’s Claude artificial intelligence models in their work with the military.

“In our view, the equitable balance here cuts in favor of the government,” the appeals court said in its decision. “On one side is a relatively contained risk of financial harm to a single private company. On the other side is judicial management of how, and through whom, the Department of War secures vital AI technology during an active military conflict.”

Anthropic had asked the appeals court to review the Pentagon’s determination and argued that it’s a form of retaliation that is unconstitutional, arbitrary, capricious and not in accord with procedures required by law, according to a filing.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/08/anthropic-pentagon-court-ruling-supply-chain-risk.html