Washington (CNN) A federal appellate court has rejected a non-profit organization's attempt to obtain President Donald Trump's tax records from the Internal Revenue Service by filing a Freedom of Information Act request.

DC Circuit Court Judge Karen Henderson wrote that the President should be afforded the same privacy rights as any other citizen.

"This case presents the question whether a member of the public -- here, a nonprofit organization -- can use a FOIA request to obtain an unrelated individual's tax records without his consent," Henderson wrote in a opinion on behalf of herself and two other appellate judges. "With certain limited exceptions -- all inapplicable here -- the answer is no."

Previous presidents have released their tax returns as a matter of course, but Trump has resisted making his records public, both as a candidate and in office.

Henderson wrote that the President's tax returns are protected by the IRS.

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