Insta-Analysis: Hikvision’s appeal of FCC ban could test DoD’s disclosures

February 17, 2023
Security Info Watch

Types : In the News

Hikvision filed a petition for judicial review Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. The lawsuit was served to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and FCC General Counsel P. Michele Ellison.

Embattled Hikvision USA has sued the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the U.S. government, seeking to overturn the FCC’s security ban on the Chinese company’s future equipment authorizations.

Hikvision filed a petition for judicial review Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. The lawsuit was served on U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and FCC General Counsel P. Michele Ellison.

Hikvision’s filing is relatively short on specific legal arguments, but it could pit Hikvision’s desire for information underlying the ban by the FCC against the government’s interest in protecting sensitive information, says legal expert Timothy Pastore, Esq., a partner and Vice-Chair of Litigation for Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads LLP.

“The ban of this company and its product is, in part, rooted in national security concerns emanating from not only the FCC but also the Department of Defense. Sometimes policy on national security matters flows from information that is highly sensitive and protected into what is, in effect, civil litigation,” says Pastore, a former member of the U.S. military and former federal prosecutor.

“The petitioner may claim the FCC lacks a basis for this ruling, and the FCC’s ability to fully explain the basis for it could be limited by the sensitivity of the underlying information that prompted the ban. The FCC might not even have some of this information. Perhaps that information is generally available, as it is not intended to be in public sphere.”

Timothy Pastore