17 former U.S. officials urge the D.C. Circuit to rehear the ruling in the Anthropic v. Pentagon dispute

17 former senior U.S. national security officials, including former Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and former National Security Advisors Susan Rice and Jake Sullivan, filed a legal opinion urging all judges of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear the ruling in which Anthropic challenges the Pentagon's designation of it as a supply chain risk. The 26-page opinion states that if the ruling stands it will threaten all defense contractors and set a dangerously wrong standard for supply chain risk designations; because Congress granted that court exclusive jurisdiction over such designations, the panel's ruling is the law applicable nationwide. The dispute arose after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth formally designated Anthropic as a national security supply chain risk in February this year, after company leadership refused the Pentagon's demand to allow the military unrestricted "all lawful uses" of commercial AI models, particularly involving mass surveillance of Americans and autonomous weapons systems. The opinion also states that the designation was in fact retaliation, with the Pentagon issuing a social media announcement first and supplementing administrative procedures afterward. A Pentagon spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.