Anthropic PBC v. United States Department of War
Issue
Whether the Department of War's invocation of 41 U.S.C. § 4713 to designate Anthropic a "supply-chain risk" — without prior notice of supporting evidence, a 30-day opportunity to respond, or a written determination of statutory predicates — violates the procedural and substantive requirements of the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act, the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, and the First Amendment's prohibition on government retaliation for protected speech and petitioning activity.
What Happened
Anthropic filed an emergency motion for stay pending review in the D.C. Circuit on March 11, 2026, seeking relief by March 26, 2026, after the Department of War issued a § 4713 Notice on March 4, 2026, formally designating Anthropic a supply-chain risk and national security threat following Anthropic's public refusal to remove usage-policy restrictions on lethal autonomous warfare and mass surveillance of Americans. Anthropic argues the Secretary acted contrary to law and arbitrarily by bypassing § 4713's mandatory sequencing — obtaining a risk assessment, disclosing the evidentiary basis to the targeted source, and affording 30 days to respond before issuing a written determination — and that the Department never invoked the statute's narrow urgent-national-security exception to justify immediate effect. Anthropic further argues the Secretary's own public statements, characterizing Anthropic's refusal as "sanctimonious rhetoric," "betrayal," and "corporate virtue-signaling," establish that the designation was retaliatory for protected expressive and petitioning activity under *National Rifle Ass'n of America v. Vullo*, 602 U.S. 175 (2024), and *Media Matters for America v. Paxton*, 138 F.4th 563 (D.C. Cir. 2025). Anthropic applied the standard four-factor stay test under *Nken v. Holder*, 556 U.S. 418 (2009), contending that all factors — likelihood of success on the merits, irreparable harm, balance of equities, and public interest — favor a stay.
Why It Matters
This motion presents what appears to be the first judicial challenge to a § 4713 supply-chain-risk designation issued against an American AI developer, and potentially the first such designation against any domestic company, raising novel questions about the statute's procedural floors and whether the government may weaponize national-security procurement authority to coerce AI developers into removing safety guardrails on their models. If the D.C. Circuit reaches the First Amendment retaliation claim, its ruling could significantly extend *Vullo*'s coercion doctrine into the AI-regulation context, constraining the government's ability to use contracting and debarment powers as leverage against companies that publicly resist demands to alter AI safety policies.
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