We describe the design of a policy-based spectrum access control system for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) NeXt Generation (XG) communications program to overcome harmful interference caused by a malfunctioning device or a malicious user. In tandem with signal-detection-based interference-avoidance algorithms employed by cognitive software-defined radios (SDR), we design a set of policy-based components, tightly integrated with the accredited kernel on the radio device. The policy conformance and enforcement components ensure that a radio does not violate machine understandable policies, which are encoded in a declarative language and which define stakeholders' goals and requirements. We report on our framework experimentation, illustrating the capability offered to radios for enforcing policies and the capability for managing radios and securing access control to interfaces changing the radios' policies.