A litigation boutique based in Oakland, California, representing plaintiffs and defendants in complex civil litigation.
Norton Law Files Amicus Briefs on Behalf of Values-Led Investors in Support of Anthropic in Challenge to Department of War
On March 15, 2026, Norton Law filed amicus briefs in both the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of Freedom Economy Business Association and a group of values-led investors, in support of Anthropic PBC in its challenge to recent actions by the President and the Department of War.
In particular, the administration directed all federal agencies to boycott Anthropic, directed federal military contractors to cease all commercial activity with Anthropic, and designated Anthropic a “supply chain risk.” The President and the Department of War took these actions in response to Anthropic’s refusal to make its generative AI technology available on terms that would allow the Department of War to use it for mass surveillance of U.S. citizens or for fully autonomous lethal weapons. The briefs argue that the President and the Department of War exceeded their statutory and constitutional authority by imposing broad punishments on Anthropic well beyond the area of defense contracting, that they failed to comply with procedural requirements concerning federal military contractors, that their designation of Anthropic as a “supply chain risk” was arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law, and that their actions, which were expressly directed at Anthropic’s policy views on the appropriate limits on use of generative artificial intelligence, violated the First Amendment.
Freedom Economy and the other amici are values-led investors who deploy capital to align with their principles and to associate with companies that benefit society as well as profit financially. These investors strongly believe that the administration’s actions pose a threat to any market participant that relies upon process, information transparency, and the rule of law to make informed decisions about where to invest. Moreover, those actions particularly threaten values-led investors who align their capital with companies’ core principles and exercise their own First Amendment rights of association in doing so.
The cases are Anthropic PBC v. U.S. Department of War, et al., case number 26-1049 (D.C. Cir.) and Anthropic PBC v. U.S. Department of War, et al., case number 3:26-cv-01996-RFL (N.D. Cal.). The co-authors of the briefs include Fred Norton, Josephine Petrick, Celine Purcell, Hayley Landman, Heather Bates, and Saja Spearman-Weaver, with support from paralegal Celeste Peifer. The briefs are available here and here.