{"id":6953,"date":"2026-03-10T08:07:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T08:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/anthropic-sues-dod-hegseth-and-a-dozen-other-federal-agencies\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T08:07:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T08:07:40","slug":"anthropic-sues-dod-hegseth-and-a-dozen-other-federal-agencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/anthropic-sues-dod-hegseth-and-a-dozen-other-federal-agencies\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthropic sues DOD, Hegseth, and a dozen other federal agencies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Anthropic is\u00a0suing\u00a0more than\u00a0a dozen federal agencies and government leaders such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, claiming that the federal government’s blacklist is illegal retaliation.<\/p>\n

In a March 9 court filing with the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, Anthropic claims that defendants named in the lawsuit are illegally punishing Anthropic for its\u00a0decision\u00a0not to change the terms of use for its AI product to work with the Department of Defense.<\/p>\n

The court filing offers background into Anthropic\u2019s product, the large language model Claude, and its extensive work within the federal government, particularly within the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

It discusses the events that unfolded in the disagreement about Claude use cases within DOD, particularly surrounding uses to surveil U.S. citizens and control autonomous weapons. Anthropic asserts that the government’s actions after\u00a0this disagreement \u2014 primarily the designation of the company as a supply-chain risk and alleged violations of its right to due process through a lack of \u201ccore requirements\u201d such as \u201cadequate notice and a meaningful hearing\u201d\u00a0\u2014\u00a0are illegal and \u201care harming Anthropic irreparably.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese actions are unprecedented and unlawful,\u201d the lawsuit reads. \u201cThe Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech. No federal statute authorizes the actions taken here. Anthropic turns to the judiciary as a last resort to vindicate its rights and halt the Executive\u2019s unlawful campaign of retaliation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration\u2019s actions against Anthropic are based on pure ideological disagreement and are not due to \u201cany legitimate procurement or security concern.\u201d Anthropic further claims that it even attempted to support the Pentagon\u2019s shift\u00a0from Anthropic software to other, more compatible systems, further underscoring the \u201cviewpoint-based\u201d actions taken against the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIndeed, while operating under the terms of the Usage Policy, the Department [of Defense] never previously raised any issues with its use of Claude or concerns about Anthropic\u2019s potential interference,\u201d the document reads. \u201cAnthropic had only ever received positive feedback about Claude\u2019s capabilities from its government customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

A separate lawsuit, filed in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals,\u00a0further requests a judicial review of the supply chain risk label, citing provisions in the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnthropic petitions this Court for review because the Department of War\u2019s actions are, among other things, a pretextual form of retaliation in violation of the First and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution; arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion; unsupported by the administrative record; not in accord with procedures required by law; and in excess of statutory authority,\u201d the second filing states.<\/p>\n

Anthropic and DOD’s failure to reach an agreement on the use of the former\u2019s technology and the resulting governmentwide actions \u2014 namely President Donald Trump\u2019s order for all federal agencies to cease using the technology and the Pentagon designating it as a supply chain risk \u2014 have fallen under scrutiny.<\/p>\n

A current defense official told Defense One <\/em>that it will not be easy to shift systems that had relied on Anthropic\u2019s technologies to those of another vendor, and experts like Anthony Kuhn, a managing partner at the New York law firm Tully Rinckey, predicted that the supply chain risk designation in particular could open the Pentagon to lawsuits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In response to the lawsuit, White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said the Trump administration\u2019s goal is for the military to operate under the U.S. Constitution, \u201cnot any woke AI company\u2019s terms of service.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Trump will never allow a radical left, woke company to jeopardize our national security by dictating how the greatest and most powerful military in the world operates,\u201d Huston said in a statement to Nextgov\/FCW<\/em>. \u201cThe President and Secretary of War are ensuring America\u2019s courageous warfighters have the appropriate tools they need to be successful and will guarantee that they are never held hostage by the ideological whims of any Big Tech leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nextgov\/FCW<\/em> has reached out to Anthropic and the Commerce Department for comment. GSA and the Pentagon declined to comment on ongoing litigation.\n\n<\/svg><\/p>\n<\/div>\n