The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the Department of Defense’s blacklisting of Anthropic technology on September 25, 2026. In a 2-1 decision, the panel found that the Trump administration could blacklist the company for withholding certain AI capabilities from the military, even without malicious intent on Anthropic’s part.
The judges described a difficult dispute over military use of powerful AI systems. The government warned that restrictive models could unexpectedly stop functioning and undermine important military operations. Anthropic, in contrast, warned that models without constraints could hallucinate unsuitable targets for lethal force.
The majority concluded that President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were responsible for weighing those competing risks. It found that Hegseth’s action stayed within the limits imposed by the Supply Chain Security Act and the Constitution, and denied the petitions for review.
The same court had previously denied Anthropic’s emergency request for a stay in April.