Topeka ? Four district court judges in Kansas, including one from Douglas County, have joined in a new lawsuit challenging a provision of this year’s state budget that threatens to defund the entire judicial branch of state government.

Judge Robert Fairchild is among the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed late Friday in Shawnee County District Court. The new lawsuit comes on the heels of a decision last week in which the Shawnee County court struck down a 2014 law that changes the way chief judges in district courts are selected.

The others are Judges Larry T. Solomon of Kingman County; Jeff Jack of Labette County; and Meryl D. Wilson of Riley County.

Kansas lawmakers inserted a provision — known as a “nonseverability” clause — into this year’s judicial funding bill that says if courts overturn a law enacted in 2014 changing the way district court chief judges are selected, then all funding for the entire state’s judicial branch must also be overturned.

Pedro Irigonegaray, the Topeka lawyer representing the judges, called that law a form of “extortion.”

“If the Legislature believed (the 2014 law) was constitutional, if they truly believe it was benign as they claim it to be, why did they find it necessary to threaten anyone who ruled against them with the destruction of the Kansas judiciary?” Irigonegaray asked during a phone interview Saturday. “Why the need for that kind of extortion? And that’s what it is, a method of extortion.”

Prior to the enactment of last year’s law, chief judges in district courts were selected by the Kansas Supreme Court. That was based on a provision in the Kansas Constitution that gives the Supreme Court “general administrative authority over all courts in this state.”

In January, Judge Solomon, chief judge of the 30th Judicial District in Kingman County, filed a suit challenging the new process, which says chief judges are to be elected by the other judges in the district. The suit was filed in Shawnee County, which has original jurisdiction in most civil cases against the state.

On Wednesday, Shawnee County judge Larry D. Hendricks ruled in favor of Solomon, saying the 2014 law violated the separation of powers doctrine in the Kansas Constitution. But Hendricks did not address the other issue — this year’s law that cuts off funding for the court system if Solomon were to win his suit — saying that issue was not part of the lawsuit before him.

The next day, Hendricks granted an emergency stay, requested by Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office, pending appeal of that decision.

And so on Friday, Irigonegaray filed a new lawsuit on behalf of four district court judges challenging this year’s budget proviso that threatens to cut off funding for the court system if, as has happened, Solomon wins his lawsuit.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, who signed both the 2014 and 2015 judicial budget bills into law, defended the nonseverability clauses that tied funding for the court system to the outcome of Judge Solomon’s lawsuit.

“The process of selecting judges is a legislative and executive function,” Brownback said. “The judiciary does not select itself, in the system of governance that we have. So I think that’s a fully appropriate thing. I thought it was a fully appropriate thing when I signed it.”

Brownback also said that “nonseverability” clauses, such as the one employed in this year’s budget bill, are common practice in state legislatures.

But Irigonegary said he believes Brownback is wrong about that.

“While it’s true that nonseverability is often employed by legislatures, the manner in which it was employed here was intended to create a constitutional crisis that was totally unnecessary,” he said.

The Shawnee County District Court has not yet set a date for a hearing on the new lawsuit.