Cybersecurity Policy Report, Anthropic Back in Business at DoD After Court Order, (Apr 7, 2026)
Anthropic is back in business at the Department of Defense in accordance with a federal court order that blocked the department’s plan to ban the developer of AI (artificial intelligence) systems, DoD told the court yesterday.
DoD “issued a memorandum notifying senior Pentagon leadership, commanders of the combatant commands, and defense agency and DoW [Department of War] field activity directors” of a preliminary injunction that went into effect on Friday, the department told the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in a status report.
At least one contractor that had been ordered to “remove Anthropic products from a contract” was told to “submit an offer to add Anthropic products and services back to the contract,” DoD said.
The department began the “reintegration of Anthropic’s products into agency IT platforms,” restored “access to Anthropic products and services where access had been disabled,” and authorized “relevant personnel to resume use of Anthropic’s products and services,” it said.
District Judge Rita Lin last month blocked the Trump administration’s effort to cancel Anthropic’s government contracts and designate it as a national security threat (CPR, March 27). The administration was at odds with Anthropic over the company’s outspoken insistence that its AI systems shouldn’t be used for domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons.
Judge Lin, however, said the government seemed to be punishing Anthropic for expressing its views rather than over legitimate national security concerns (Anthropic PBC v. U.S. Department of War, et al., No. 3:26-cv-01996 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 9, 2026)).
The administration has appealed the district court ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (San Francisco), which set an April 30 deadline for opening briefs.
Although DoD told the district court it would comply with the injunction, it said it still planned to phase out its use of Anthropic. The memorandum reinstating Anthropic as an approved contractor “specifically instructed that DoW may not refuse to award prime or subcontracts to Anthropic or direct vendors not to use Anthropic technology, whether for DoW or commercial work,” DoD said, but it also “advised that the Department will continue to transition from Anthropic to other AI providers.”
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