Anthropic asks the full appeals court to rehear its Pentagon blacklist case

The news

Anthropic on October 13 petitioned the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for panel rehearing or rehearing by the full court, challenging a September 25 decision that upheld the Department of War's designation of the company as a national-security supply-chain risk, Bloomberg reported.

Why it matters

The D.C. Circuit has exclusive jurisdiction over this law. The case will decide whether a US agency can blacklist an AI vendor over the conditions it attaches to its models.

The details

The 2-1 ruling, written by Judge Katsas and joined by Judge Rao with Judge Henderson dissenting, treated the department's failure to give notice before the designation as harmless. Anthropic argues the panel misread the statute, wrongly excused the skipped notice and failed to find retaliation for its public AI-safety stance.

The designation followed Anthropic's refusal in February to drop contract terms barring use of Claude for lethal autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance.

What we could not check

• We did not read the petition itself, only reporting and summaries.
• The department's response is not yet public.