A federal judge on Friday ruled an alliance of “nonbelievers” can proceed with suing the Pennsylvania House of Representatives over its opening invocation policy.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which is sponsoring the litigation along with American Atheists, welcomed the decision by U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner to allow the case to move to a full hearing.

“The Pennsylvania House’s policy of barring people who don’t believe in God from delivering invocations is discriminatory and unconstitutional,” said Alex Luchenitser, associate legal director of Americans United. “I’m pleased that we’ll be able to make our case in court.”

The House has been opening its session with prayer for the past three centuries.

The lawsuit grew out of requests made by the Dillsburg Area Freethinkers and the Pennsylvania Nonbelievers to deliver the opening invocation that were rejected in 2014. After that, the House changed its rule to require the chaplain to “be a member of a regularly established church or religious organization or shall be a member of the House of Representatives,” according to the lawsuit.

Subsequent requests in 2015 to offer an invocation also were rejected, leading the nontheists to file the lawsuit arguing that the House rule violates their constitutional rights and violates the separation of church and state.

In Conner’s ruling, he stated, “We reject the assertion that defendants may discriminate on the basis of religion simply because their internal operating rules do not proscribe it.”

House Republican spokesman Steve Miskin said he had no comment about the judge’s decision late Friday afternoon because he had not seen the decision. Attempts to reach Mark Chopko, the attorney representing the House, on Friday afternoon for comment were unsuccessful.

The plaintiffs in the case include Pennsylvania Nonbelievers, its president Brian Fields, and member Joshua Neiderhiser; Dillsburg Area Freethinkers, its chief organizer Paul Tucker, and member Deana Weaver; and Lancaster Freethought Society and its president Scott Rhoades.