The U.S. Department of Justice appealed to ban Claude, and the federal procurement department subsequently negotiated a new agreement at a 40% discount.

Beating AI News Flash, October 26 - The U.S. Department of Justice has just appealed in an attempt to restore a federal-wide ban against Anthropic. The very next day, the General Services Administration (GSA), responsible for government procurement, announced an expansion of its partnership, allowing government agencies to use Claude at a 40% discount, paying based on actual usage with no minimum commitment required.

In February of this year, the GSA had publicly supported Trump's ban on Anthropic and removed Claude from the government procurement list. In March, a California court halted the comprehensive ban, and the GSA restored procurement eligibility in April. In August, the court further ruled that the government's broad ban was illegal. Although the Department of Justice has now filed an appeal, the ruling will not automatically be suspended as a result.

Anthropic disclosed that approximately 500 U.S. federal, state, and local government organizations currently use Claude, with usage by federal civilian agencies growing about 20-fold over the past year.

Thus a rather delicate scene has emerged: the Department of Justice is still fighting in court to restore the ban, while the government procurement department has proactively negotiated a new discount agreement.