President Donald Trump makes remarks to the press during an event to sign the $1.5 trillion tax cut bill in the Oval Office of the White House, December 22, 2017, in Washington, DC, prior to his departure to Mar-a-Lago, Florida for the holidays. Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 22 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump's latest travel ban executive order is unlawful, a panel of judges in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday.

The appellate court panel's decision roughly aligned with a previous District Court injunction, BuzzFeed reported. But Friday's ruling specifically only offers relief to would-be travelers to the U.S. with a "bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States."


"The Proclamation, like its predecessor executive orders, relies on the premise that the Immigration and Nationality Act ("INA") vested the President with broad powers to regulate the entry of aliens," the San Francisco-based panel wrote in Friday's ruling. "Those powers, however, are not without limit. We conclude that the President's issuance of the Proclamation once again exceeds the scope of his delegated authority."

Trump's latest travel ban, signed in September, forbids U.S. entry for travelers from Chad, Somalia, Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen and North Korea. It also bans some Venezuelan government officials and their families from entering the country.

One other federal appellate court, based in Richmond, Va., is looking at the legality of the executive order, Bloomberg reported.

"It is axiomatic that the President must exercise his executive powers lawfully," the 9th Circuit panel wrote.