WASHINGTON — Anthropic sued the U.S. Department of Defense on Monday, asking courts to reverse a “supply chain risk” designation that restricts the Claude AI maker’s work with Pentagon contractors, according to TechCrunch, CNBC, PBS NewsHour, The Guardian, and Wired. The company filed two cases — in the Northern District of California and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals — seeking to block enforcement of the designation.
Mutually confirmed facts across these sources include:
- Anthropic filed two lawsuits Monday, one in federal court in California and one in the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.
- The Pentagon labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk last week, a designation that bars defense vendors from using Claude on Department of Defense work.
- The company says the designation is unlawful and violates its First Amendment rights and protected speech.
- Anthropic says it will not allow unrestricted military use of Claude, including for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons.
Additional Details Reported
President Donald Trump said he would order federal agencies to stop using Claude, while giving the Pentagon a six‑month phaseout for systems embedded in classified work, PBS NewsHour reported; CNBC reported that the move followed a public dispute over whether the military can use Claude for any lawful purpose, and Euronews reported that the Pentagon formally sanctioned Anthropic last week.
Anthropic previously secured a $200 million Department of Defense contract in July and said its tools had been deeply integrated into sensitive systems, CNBC reported; The Guardian reported that Claude had been the only approved AI model for certain classified use cases, and Euronews reported that the company says it wants to keep working with national security agencies while challenging the designation in court.
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