Owners of local travel agencies specializing in trips to Cuba are hopeful that an opinion handed down Friday by the U.S. Justice Department will move them one step closer to overturning a state law aimed at further regulating their business.

In a 35-page report issued this week, the Justice Department said that the Sellers of Travel Act -- passed by the Legislature in 2008 and signed into law by Gov. Charlie Crist -- interferes with existing federal regulation of travel to Cuba.

Proposed by Rep. David Rivera, a Miami Republican, the law requires travel agencies that sell trips to Cuba to post a $250,000 bond with the state and pay up to $2,500 in annual registration fees.

''The Florida Amendments also interfere with the federal government's ability to speak for the United States with one voice in foreign affairs,'' notes the report.

Justice department officials weighed in on the matter after more than a dozen Florida-based travel agencies filed a federal lawsuit against the state last June to stop the law from going into effect.

In July, U.S. District Judge U.S. District Court Judge Alan S. Gold ordered a temporary injunction against the law so that he could have more time to solicit an opinion from Justice Department attorneys.

Friday's findings buoyed the hopes of those who filed the suit, who often said they were a target of a "witch hunt" by Rivera.

"I think this will definitely help our position," said Steven M. Weinger, one of the attorneys representing the travel agencies.

"The Department of Justice has basically taken the same position that we've taken, that the state of Florida does not have the right to punish people who legally try to sell trips to Cuba."

Rivera touted the measure as a "homeland security" issue, because it targeted Florida based agencies that sold trips to the five countries on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist nations: Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Cuba.

"This demonstrates that the Obama administration is obviously only interested in kissing up to the Castro regime rather than protecting Florida consumers from the abuses of these travel agencies," Rivera said in response to Friday's opinion release. "Now more than ever Florida must protect our consumers."

The Justice Department's report comes on the heels of last week's decision by the Obama administration to issue a new license that will allow Cuban Americans to visit relatives on the island once a year and stay as long as they like. Previously under restrictions enacted by former President Bush in 2004, trips were limited to every three years.

Weinger said it is still unclear when Gold will reach a final decision.