A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. National Security Agency's bulk data collection program likely does not comply with the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who released the decision on Monday, wrote that "in view of the significant national security interests at stake," he would not require the decision's widespread enforcement until the government has had a chance to appeal.

"This case is yet the latest chapter in the Judiciary's continuing challenge to balance the national security interests of the United States with the individual liberties of our citizens," Leon wrote.

"The Government, in its understandable zeal to protect our homeland, has crafted a counterterrorism program with respect to telephone metadata that strikes the balance based in large part on a thirty-four year old Supreme Court precedent, the relevance of which has been eclipsed by technological advances and a cell phone-centric lifestyle heretofore inconceivable."

The debate over balancing security and privacy ramped up significantly this summer after former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden leaked a trove of secret documents revealing the vast scope of the NSA's surveillance capabilities..

With the decision, Leon ordered the NSA to stop collecting the phone records of the case's two plaintiffs, public interest lawyer Larry Klayman and Charles Strange, the father of a Navy SEAL who was killed in Afghanistan. Otherwise, the agency can continue with business as usual until the U.S. government has a chance to mount and appeal.

"I hearby give the Government fair notice that should my ruling be upheld, this order will go into effect forthwith," Leon wrote. "Accordingly, I fully expect that during the appellate process, which will consume at least the next sig months, the Government will take whatever steps necessary to prepare itself to comply with this order when, and if, it is upheld."

UPDATE: 4:00 p.m. ET: Journalist Glenn Greenwald, the former Guardian reporter who brought Edward Snowden's leaked documents to light, provided a statement to the New York Times on the decision from Snowden himself. It reads:

I acted on my belief that the NSA's mass surveillance programs would not withstand a constitutional challenge, and that the American public deserved a chance to see these issues determined by open courts. Today, a secret program authorized by a secret court was, when exposed to the light of day, found to violate Americans’ rights. It is the first of many.

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