The Trump administration formally defended the Pentagon’s blacklisting of Anthropic in a Tuesday court filing, asserting that the designation of the artificial intelligence firm as a national security threat was both justified and lawful.
The filing serves as the government's first major response to a high-stakes lawsuit brought by the maker of the Claude AI assistant, which seeks to overturn the restrictive designation.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated Anthropic a "national security supply chain risk" on March 3, 2026, after months of negotiations reached an impasse.
The dispute centers on Anthropic’s refusal to remove safety "guardrails" that prevent its technology from being integrated into fully autonomous weapons systems or used for domestic mass surveillance.
While Anthropic contends the blacklist is a retaliatory strike against its protected corporate speech and safety principles, the Justice Department argued that the dispute is a matter of procurement and conduct.
"It was only when Anthropic refused to release the restrictions on the use of its products — which refusal is conduct, not protected speech — that the President directed all federal agencies to terminate their business relationships with Anthropic," the administration stated in the filing.