“Contracting with the federal government is a privilege, not a constitutionally guaranteed right — at least not as far as this court is aware,” District Judge Amos Mazzant wrote on Tuesday, throwing out Huawei’s lawsuit against a US law that keeps federal agencies and their contractors from buying its equipment.
The US District Court in East Texas ruled that Congress acted within its rights and constitutionally when it passed section 889 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The provision bars purchases of telecommunications equipment from Huawei and fellow Chinese company ZTE over security concerns. Reuters reported the ruling first.
The bill of attainder argument
Huawei had called the NDAA a “Bill of attainder,” a law that declares a party guilty without a fair trial, which would be unconstitutional. It filed suit in March of the year before and amended the complaint in May, arguing that section 889 singles out Huawei, disrupts existing contracts, brands the company and its employees as tools of the Chinese government, and badly threatens its ability to do business in the US.
Mazzant disagreed. In his view the law mainly governs how the federal government spends its money and does not stop Huawei from doing business in the US. Huawei, he said, can still “conduct business with every other company and individual in America as well as the remaining 169 countries and regions it currently does business with throughout the world.”
He did note that some senators had made harsh remarks when the NDAA first came before Congress, including that Huawei deserves “the death penalty.” The judge concluded that what individual lawmakers said does not represent Congress as a whole.
Huawei’s answer
A Huawei spokesperson said the company was disappointed. “Huawei is disappointed in today’s ruling and while we understand the paramount significance of national security, the approach taken by the US Government in the 2019 NDAA provides a false sense of protection while undermining Huawei’s constitutional rights. We will continue to consider further legal options,” the spokesperson said.
Huawei has repeatedly denied that it put backdoors in its equipment. When the suit was filed, Guo Ping said of the US government: “Despite this, the US government has never provided any evidence supporting their accusations that Huawei poses a cybersecurity threat.” He also said Washington was “trying to block us from the 5G markets in other countries.”
Other fights with Washington
The company has several other legal battles open. Last week the US Department of Justice charged Huawei and four of its subsidiaries with racketeering and conspiracy to steal trade secrets. Huawei also faces two other charges, one alleging it stole trade secrets from T-Mobile and the other that it violated US sanctions by misrepresenting its dealings in Iran to at least four banks. Chief financial officer Wanzhou Meng is under arrest in Canada and fighting extradition to the US, where she faces an indictment tied to the sanctions charge.
Sources
Sources
- US District Court dismisses Huawei lawsuit that federal ban… – ZDNET
- Judge dismisses Huawei suit challenging US… – CNET
