Appeals Court Rebuffs Anthropic in Latest Round of AI Battle with Trump Administration
The ruling followed another judge’s order that forced President Donald Trump’s administration to remove a label tainting the company as a national security risk.
WASHINGTON, April 8, 2026 (AP) — A federal appeals court on Wednesday refused to block the Pentagon from blacklisting artificial intelligence laboratory Anthropic in a decision that differed from the conclusions reached in another judge's ruling on the same issues.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., rejected Anthropic's request for an order that would shield the San Francisco company from the fallout stemming from a dispute over how the Pentagon could deploy its Claude chatbot in fully autonomous weapons and potential surveillance of Americans while the panel is still collecting evidence about the case.
But the setback in Washington came after Anthropic already had prevailed in separate case focused on the same issues in San Francisco federal court. In that case, a judge forced President Donald Trump’s administration to remove a label tainting the company as a national security risk.
