Clinic Represents Former U.S. National Security Officials in Amicus Brief Defending Anthropic
Represented by Yale Law School’s Peter Gruber Rule of Law Clinic and the Farella Braun + Martel law firm, a group of 16 former senior U.S. national security officials filed an amicus brief on March 13 urging the district court in the Northern District of California to reject the Pentagon’s attempt to punish artificial intelligence company Anthropic for its independent business decisions by designating it as a supply chain risk. The matter is before the federal court in California on a motion for preliminary injunction.
Amici comprise former policymakers and lawyers whose governmental service spans seven decades. This group include a former director of national intelligence, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, deputy secretary of state, deputy attorney general, national security advisor, assistant secretary of state, assistant attorney general, legal adviser to the U.S. Department of State, deputy national security advisor, legal adviser to the National Security Council, and deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Amici, drawing upon their decades of combined government experience, make two principal arguments. First, that there is no national security threat to which the federal government’s designation is responding. In fact, according to the brief, allowing such pretextual designations would itself cause national security problems.
“The perspective of many amici is … grounded in their practical experience managing supply chain risks and with the applicable statutory frameworks ... and their professional understanding of the conditions under which advanced technologies — including frontier artificial intelligence systems — can be responsibly incorporated into defense and intelligence operations,” the brief states. “Amici believe that preserving the integrity of those statutory authorities is a national security imperative … They submit this brief to assist the Court in understanding how the government’s actions in this case distort the national security authorities invoked and thereby risk undermining, rather than advancing, U.S. national security interests.”
Second, amici argue that the Pentagon’s designation amounts to illegal use of the statute and a violation of both the First Amendment and of the constitutional prohibition against bills of attainder, laws that single out an individual or entity, declare them guilty, and impose a punishment without a court trial.
“The Constitution’s categorical ban on attainder forecloses the President’s actions here,” the brief states. Despite the invocation of national security, “[n]o statute, even if it were properly applied to the facts at hand … can arrogate to the Executive a power that Congress itself may not exercise.” Amici call the Anthropic incident the latest chapter in a punitive presidency, highlighting previous targets including “[the President’s] political opponents, law firms that hired or represented them, universities whose administrative decisions he disagreed with, journalistic outlets that refused to use his preferred terminology, companies that refused to fire Trump’s political enemies, and members of Congress whose speech he disapproved.”
Amici conclude that “[a]llowing the Government to proceed in its campaign of attainder against Anthropic would warp valuable national security devices into tools of political abuse.”
Amici are represented by the Peter Gruber Rule of Law Clinic at Yale Law School and by Farella Braun + Martel LLP. The Peter Gruber Rule of Law Clinic was founded to address threats to the rule of law in 2016 by Sterling Professor of International Law and former Dean Harold Hongju Koh and William O. Douglas Clinical Professor of Law Michael Wishnie ’93. The Clinic is now led by Koh, Aharon Barak Distinguished Rule of Law Fellow Bruce C. Swartz ’79, and Peter Gruber Rule of Law Fellow Sonia Mittal ’13, as well as Visiting Lecturers in Law Eugene Fidell, Margaret Donovan, and Justin Cole ’23. Attorney Alexis Loeb of Farella Braun + Martel LLP joined the Clinic as a cooperating attorney in representing amici in this case. Four clinic members previously wrote about the matter for Just Security.
Current Yale Law students and clinic members who worked on the brief include Kate Ahrens ’27, Mia Alvarez ’27, Elizabeth Bailey ’27, Kate Davidson ’27, Saavni Desai ’27, Avi Gupta ’26, Harry Seavey ’27, and Brady Worthington ’27.
