Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline answers a question during a news conference Friday, Dec. 23, 2006, at his office in Topeka.

Topeka ? The seven justices of the Kansas Supreme Court are asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit from former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the lawsuit is connected to the 2013 decision to indefinitely suspend Kline’s law license over an investigation he led into abortion clinics.

Kline’s attorneys argue that the court lacked the four justices necessary to make the decision. That’s because five of the court’s seven justices recused themselves, partially at Kline’s request. The case then was heard by two Supreme Court justices and five other Kansas judges from lower courts.

At issue is whether the temporary justices’ votes should count. Kline’s attorneys say they shouldn’t; the defendants say they should. The justices are calling Kline’s arguments “puzzling.”