As per a report by CNBC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 on September 25 that the Pentagon was justified in barring Anthropic's Claude models from Defense Department systems and contract work, citing national security concerns. The dispute began in February, when President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated Anthropic a supply chain risk, arguing that the company's own safety restrictions on Claude created uncertainty about whether the model would perform as needed in sensitive settings, including an ongoing overseas military operation.

Circuit Judge Gregory Katsas, writing for the majority and joined by Judge Neomi Rao, found the Pentagon had "ample support" for its decision, pointing to Anthropic's contractual limits on how Claude could be used. Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson dissented. The ruling leaves the Pentagon free to continue excluding Claude from its information systems and contract work, in one of the first appellate tests of a government agency using supply-chain-risk authority against an AI company over its own safety guardrails.