An activist group that focuses on issues of separation of church and state won a judge’s approval Tuesday to continue its lawsuit against two churches accused of underpaying by more than $1 million for use of Hawaii public school facilities.

Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall ruled that plaintiffs Mitchell Kahle and Holly Huber made sufficient claims for their case to proceed against One Love Ministries and Calvary Chapel Central Oahu.

Kahle, founder of Hawaii Citizens for the Separation of Church and State, and Huber, his wife, refiled the suit in February after the original suit was dismissed in December on the grounds that it lacked sufficient detail.

While Crandall denied a motion by the defendants to dismiss the case Tuesday, she also dismissed a portion of the case that contended One Love illegally paid a lower rent based on a signed 2009 agreement between the church and Kaimuki High School.

Both sides claimed the ruling a victory of sorts.

"We’re pleased with the judge’s ruling that dismissed most of the case," said Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious liberty group representing the churches. What remains are "pieces" of the suit alleging special events didn’t have proper applications filed, he said.

Stanley said when the evidence comes out, "the whole case is going to go away."

But Jim Bickerton, attorney for the plaintiffs, said "most of the case survives," including all the claims against Calvary Chapel.

He said only a fraction of the claims against One Love were dismissed. He said the churches committed fraud when they didn’t tell the state the actual number of hours that they were using the facilities.

Attorneys for the defendants have said that the churches paid all their rent and gave even more in service and funding to the schools.

Stanley said the lawsuit is already hurting schools. He said One Love has stopped renting Kaimuki’s facilities, and certain after-school programs have been canceled because of the loss in revenue.

"These churches were good neighbors to the schools," he said. "The churches provided all of kinds of things for these particular schools: upgrades, improvements, all types of things that schools needed to have done."

One Love referred calls for comment to its attorneys, and Calvary Chapel did not return a call for comment.

Kahle initially filed the suit against five churches, maintaining that they owed more than $5.6 million in rental fees to Hawaii’s schools. Three of the five churches — New Hope O’ahu, New Hope Hawaii Kai and New Hope Kapolei — were dropped from the suit in February after their denomination, International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, agreed to pay a $775,000 settlement. The settlement included no admission of underpayment or wrongdoing.