A federal judge in New York City ruled that President Trump unlawfully appointed Chad Wolf to be acting Secretary of Homeland Security, and therefore Wolf illegally suspended protections afforded some migrants under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, NBC News reports.

In June, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Trump Administration illegally shut down the DACA program.  Nonetheless, Wolf acted to suspend the program July 28th.

Judge Nicholas Garaufis, a Clinton-appointed Senior Judge in the Eastern District of New York ruled, “Wolf was not lawfully serving as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security under the HSA [Homeland Security Act] when he issued the Wolf Memorandum.”  The Wolf Memorandum in question suspended the DACA program.

Garaufis cited a Government Accountability Office report to Congress, submitted in August, which noted that Wolf took office due to an “invalid order of succession” when Trump shuffled Cabinet officials to place people loyal to him in offices.

“Based on the plain text of the operative order of succession, neither [Kevin McAleenan, Wolf’s predecessor in the job] nor, in turn, Mr. Wolf, possessed statutory authority to serve as Acting Secretary.  Therefore the Wolf Memorandum was not an exercise of legal authority.”

Wolf’s order suspending DACA impacted up to one million people in the United States, who migrated here as children under the age of 16 and who were in the US since June 15, 2007.