Embodiments of the invention provide a trusted intermediary for use in a system in which access control decisions may be based at least in part on information provided in claims. The intermediary may request claims on behalf of a network resource to which access is requested, and submit the claims for a decision whether to grant or deny access. The decision may be based at least in part on one or more access control policies, which may be pre-set or dynamically generated. Because the intermediary requests the claims and submits the claims for an access control decision, the network resource (e.g., a server application) need not be configured to process claims information.