Last week, Defense Secretary Hegseth gave Anthropic, an AI company, an ultimatum: remove two sections of your contract with us or face retaliation. The sections covered prohibitions on mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.

The Anthropic declined, and the President and Secretary of Defense have now said they’ll cut all government contracts with the company and designate it a supply chain risk, a label usually reserved for foreign adversaries.

Why does this matter?

This involves checks on executive power, unregulated emerging technology, and Constitutional guardrails.

First, the decision to take a human life is the most serious action a government can take. The Constitution did not leave that decision to be made solely by the executive branch. There are laws and decades of military guidelines in place to ensure accountability on how these lethal decisions are made. No government, however well-intentioned, can be trusted to police that boundary itself.

Second, our Constitutional protections. The Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches, apply regardless of the technology used. Surveillance that once required a lot of resources can now with advanced AI occur automatically at scales that should alarm us all. If the existing law needs to adapt to new technology, it is Congress’s job, not a decision to be made in a contract negotiation.

Thich is why on behalf of our members, Common Cause joined with others to demand that Congress exercise oversight.

Here are our members’ demands:

1) Secretary Hegseth and other senior officials should testify about the Pentagon’s use of AI for domestic surveillance capabilities and autonomous weapons development.

2) Lawmakers should request documents and communications from the Department of Defense and AI companies pertaining to mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.

3) Establish a reporting requirement, where the Department of Defense will regularly report to Congress on how AI is being used and if it complies with the Constitution.

Read the full letter here.

You should not have to rely on a private company to be the last line of defense for your constitutional rights and the rule of law. That is Congress’s job. We are demanding that they do it.

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