Posted: Posted June 18, 2021 / 5:35 pm CDT / Has been updated: June 18, 2021 / 5:40 pm CDT

New Orleans (AP) —Federal Court of Appeals hears Chinese tech giant Huawei’s request to revoke rules prohibiting local telcos from purchasing equipment with government funds for national security reasons I refused to do that.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals bans Federal Communications Commission recipients of “Universal Service Fund” subsidies from purchasing equipment or services from companies deemed to be at national security risk. We have ruled that it is within the authority and ability to issue.

A committee of three judges also dismissed Huawei Technologies Ltd’s allegation that the FCC lacked the expertise to specify company equipment as a security risk to the US telecommunications infrastructure.

“The assessment of security risks in telecommunications networks is in the FCC’s wheelhouse,” the judge said in a 60-page opinion, rejecting the proposal to be some sort of “junior variety” agency on national security issues.

Huawei did not immediately respond to the ruling.

The Trump administration has imposed a series of sanctions on Huawei, arguing that it is unreliable that Chinese law does not spy on Beijing. Huawei says it is an employee, not government-owned, and denies that it could encourage Chinese espionage.

Huawei 2019 after government agencies banned local carriers from using government subsidies to purchase equipment from Huawei or its Chinese rival ZTE Corp I filed a lawsuit against FCC in the second half. It claimed that the FCC exceeded its authority by making national security decisions.

Friday’s decision was in line with the long-standing tradition of US courts to never speculate on the government’s decision on national security.

Huawei’s US sales plummeted in 2012 after a parliamentary panel warned the company and ZTE that they were a security risk and instructed carriers to avoid them. In May 2019, the Trump administration solidified its territory by blocking access to US technologies and components, such as semiconductors and Google’s popular mobile services.