KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — An attorney argued before the Missouri Court of Appeals that taxpayers should have legal standing to challenge the state’s procedures for obtaining drugs for lethal injections.

Justin Gelfand, representing two former state lawmakers and two other citizens, argued an appeal Wednesday in a lawsuit alleging the state violates federal and state law by using an illegal prescription to obtain pentobarbital from a compounding pharmacy for the executions. The lawsuit does not challenge the death penalty, only practices used to obtain the drugs.

A Cole County judge dismissed the lawsuit in July 2015, ruling in part that taxpayers do not have standing to challenge Department of Corrections operations and the Missouri Supreme Court has jurisdiction in death penalty-related lawsuits.

It wasn’t clear when the appeals court would issue a ruling.