That section of the rule allows a credit union serving a Single Political Jurisdiction, Core-Based Statistical Area, or Combined Statistical Area to add an adjacent area as long as the credit union can demonstrate if the credit union can demonstrate that a "sufficient level of interaction" exists between the adjacent area and the already-served area.

She said that the NCUA chose "reasonable factors" for evaluating whether adjacent areas should be included.

In her ruling she also said that in the past, the NCUA defined a portion of a Core-Based Statistical Area as part of a local community if it included the core of the area. The new rule deletes that requirement.

The judge said that while she is troubled by that new definition, the agency has broad discretion to define "local community."

While the ABA said it intends to appeal the ruling affecting those sections of the rule, the NCUA has said it will appeal Friedrich's ruling that two sections of the rule violated federal law.

Friedrich threw out a provision of the field of membership rule that increases to one million people the population limit for rural districts. She also threw out a provision of the rule that automatically qualified a "Combined Statistical Area" or a contiguous portion of it with fewer than 2.5 million people to be a local community.

The NCUA has filed its intent to appeal that ruling.

CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle applauded the NCUA's decision to appeal the parts of the rule that were overturned and blasted the ABA's decision to appeal the parts of the rule that were upheld.

"We believe the National Credit Union Administration's had the authority to issue the field of membership rules in 2016 and support their appeal of the DC District Court's summary judgment decision that held that part of the rule violated the Federal Credit Union Act." Nussle said. "The ABA's appeal of the decision only continues a long line of tireless attacks against credit unions by banks who make every attempt to limit Americans' access to credit unions."

"As we have said previously, NCUA's field-of-membership rule is well within the agency's legal authority and is in keeping with the Federal Credit Union Act," said NAFCU's President/CEO B. Dan Berger said in a statement,. "We stand solidly in support of this rule.

"This suit, and the ABA's appeal, is just another effort by bankers to distort the truth and stymie credit unions' ability to provide consumers with the choice of a financial institution that puts them first," Berger added.