An attorney for four Kansas judges says they will continue pursuing a lawsuit over the court system’s budget despite an order in another case protecting its funding.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt asked for the order to prevent a shutdown this fall when lawmakers wouldn’t be available to deal with the fallout.

The possibility of a court shutdown loomed after a judge in a different county appeared to trigger the funding cutoff when he struck down the law giving local courts the power to select chief judges.

A district court judge Tuesday ordered that a law with a funding cut-off provision could not be enforced until March 15, at which time the Legislature will be in session. Copies of his request and Ahlquist’s order released by Schmidt’s office bore the same official time stamp from Tuesday morning.

Critics of the change in how chief judges are selected view it as an attack on the court system’s independence and accuse the Republican-dominated Legislature and GOP Gov. Sam Brownback of trying to intimidate the judiciary into accepting it through the budget process. The injunction granted by Neosho County District Judge Daryl Ahlquist puts the law on hold until March 15.

But Irigonegaray said the state should acknowledge “wrongdoing” by the legislative and executive branches of government and drop its opposition to the judges’ lawsuit.

In early September, a judge in Shawnee County did just that, saying the change in selection procedure violated the separation of powers doctrine of the Kansas Constitution.

A Topeka district judge has ruled the new selection law is unconstitutional but put a stay on his ruling while the state appeals.

The Supreme Court has traditionally chosen chief judges under its constitutional authority to administer court operations. Spokeswoman Jennifer Rapp said Schmidt sought to avoid the “epicenter” of a heated debate by filing his case “away from Topeka”. “We thought it better to get a fresh perspective on this issue that affects the entire state”.

The court on Monday upheld a lower court’s ruling that Shawnee Mission, a wealthy district in Johnson County, waited too long to intervene in a lawsuit brought by four other school districts in 2010.

Rep. Ron Ryckman, R-Olathe and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said he had discussed the matter with the attorney general and agreed with putting the defunding provision on hold.