A federal judge has been asked to deny the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed over the agency’s approval of Mississippi’s plan to divert $570 million in hurricane housing funds to a Gulf Coast port project.

The federal government wanted the case thrown out, arguing the Mississippi NAACP and the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center hadn’t established the right to sue on behalf of their clients or members.

Attorney Larry Schoen, representing the Mississippi NAACP, contended in court documents filed in U.S. District Court in Washington that the organization could bring the litigation because some of its members “were injured” by HUD’s decision to OK the diversion.