A federal judge has dismissed claims by the Association of Christian Schools International that the University of California’s policies for evaluating whether high-school courses meet academic-preparation requirements are unconstitutional and discriminate against applicants from Christian high schools. But in his ruling, issued on Friday, Judge S. James Otero of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles allowed the group to continuing pressing challenges to specific course-approval decisions.

The association, known as ASCI, and several students from Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta, Calif., sued the university system in 2005, arguing that it had violated their rights to free speech and religious freedom by refusing to allow the students to use some of the school’s courses to meet admissions requirements.

In a written statement summarizing the ruling, the university said that Judge Otero had found that the university had a legitimate interest in setting academic requirements for admission and that its high-school course-evaluation policies were reasonable. —Paula Wasley