Gibson Dunn Files Amicus Brief on Behalf of Democracy Defenders Fund and 149 Former Judges
Firm News | March 18, 2026
A Gibson Dunn team led by partner Gregg Costa — a former federal trial and appellate judge — has filed an amicus brief in the D.C. Circuit on behalf of the Democracy Defenders Fund, which is representing 149 former federal and state judges, in support of Anthropic in its litigation against the U.S. government for designating the AI company a “supply chain risk.”
Drawing on the former judges’ centuries of collective experience, the brief argues that there is no “national security” exception to ordinary principles of judicial review. The judiciary has an indispensable role to say what the law is — and here, the law does not permit the government to label an American business a “supply chain risk” based on a contractual dispute.
In addition to Gregg Costa, our team included partners Martie Kutscher Clark and Lauren Goldman, of counsel Sophia Brill, and associate Connor Mui.