The UFT is appealing a state judge’s ruling that allowed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of teacher tenure and seniority rights to proceed.

Staten Island Supreme Court Justice Philip G. Minardo on March 12 denied a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on legal grounds. The ruling did not address the merit or veracity of the claims made in the lawsuit.

“This isn’t over by a long shot,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew. “Our fight has just begun.”

The UFT had argued that the parents and children named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit did not say how they were personally harmed, but the judge ruled that they “clearly have standing.”

The two lawsuits, since combined by the judge, were filed in 2014 by the Partnership for Educational Justice, the group headed by TV personality Campbell Brown, and the New York City Parents Union. The lawsuits argue that teachers’ due-process rights and layoff by seniority contravene the state’s constitutional guarantee of a “sound, basic” education for all students. The suits were prompted by a California judge’s ruling in June striking down that state’s teacher tenure laws. Gov. Jerry Brown has appealed the California ruling.

The UFT intervened as a defendant in the suits, along with its state affiliate, the New York State United Teachers. The other defendants are the state, the city, the state Board of Regents, the State Education Department and the New York City Department of Education.