Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. today lost its legal case against its ban by the U.S. government after a judge ruled the company did not have grounds to sue.

The case, filed in March in the U.S. District Court in Plano, argued that Section 889 of the 2019 U.S. National Defense Authorization Act that prohibits government agencies from buying Huawei gear is unconstitutional because it violates multiple constitutional principles by singling out the company without evidence.

The lawsuit argued the ban violates the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution – the due process clauses as well as the separation-of-powers principles — since Congress is both making the law and attempting to adjudicate and execute it.

District Judge Amos Mazzant disagreed, ruling that Congress acted within its powers when it passed the act that banned both Huawei along with Chinese networking company ZTE Corp. According to Politico, the judge also determined that Congress did not prevent Huawei from doing business in the U.S. but rather exercised its power to determine how the government spent its money.

“Huawei 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,” Judge Mazzant said in the ruling.

A Huawei spokesperson responded to the ruling by saying that “while we understand the paramount significance of national security, the approach taken by the U.S. Government in the 2019 NDAA provides a false sense of protection while undermining Huawei’s constitutional rights.” The spokesperson added that “we will continue to consider further legal options.’

What those legal options are is not clear, but the ruling only relates to government purchases of Huawei equipment, not other bans imposed on the company. Huawei is still pursuing a suit filed in December against the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in a bid to overturn a ban that prevents rural carriers from using a government fund to buy network equipment from the company.

Huawei continues to face other restrictions. On Monday, the U.S. government said it was considering further measures that would restrict the company’s access to American-made semiconductor equipment. That would be a further blow to Huawei given that it has already had its access restricted to other U.S. technology, most notably the licensed version of Google LLC’s Android operating system.

Photo: Duncan Riley