Judge Karen Henderson
Karen LeCraft Henderson is a United States Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where she has served since 1990 following her appointment by President George H.W. Bush. She holds an undergraduate degree from Duke University and a law degree from the University of North Carolina, and previously served as a federal district judge in South Carolina under President Reagan. She is regarded as one of the more conservative voices on the D.C. Circuit and drew significant attention in 2026 for her pointed criticism of the Pentagon's designation of AI company Anthropic as a national security supply-chain risk, calling it 'a spectacular overreach by the department' during oral argument in Anthropic v. Hegseth.
“The Pentagon claims it's unworkable for the military or its vendors to rely on Anthropic because the company might pull the plug at any time due to its 'ideological' views around AI safety.”
Source→“D.C. federal appeals court Judge Karen Henderson: "To me this is just a spectacular overreach by the department."”
Source→“[Pentagon Under Secretary Emil Michael], who in his memo refers to you as having mal-intent, a bad motive, cannot be trusted.”
Source→AI-extracted from podcast / newsletter / paper summaries. May contain errors.