By DAN MARGOLIES

Missouri and Kansas have joined 18 other states in seeking to have the Affordable Care Act declared unconstitutional following Congress’ repeal last year of the tax penalty associated with the individual mandate.

In a lawsuit filed late Monday in federal court in Texas, the coalition of 20 mostly red states claimed that the elimination of the tax penalty for those who don’t buy health insurance renders the entire healthcare law unconstitutional.

In announcing that Missouri had joined the lawsuit, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley said in a statement that the Affordable Care Act “was never constitutional.”

“My office will continue to fight to take health care choices out of the hands of D.C. bureaucrats and put them in the hands of families and physicians,” Hawley said.

Hawley’s statement that the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, was never constitutional flies in the face of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2012 decision finding that the mandate was constitutional under Congress’ power to levy taxes.

The 20 suing states are now citing that same decision to argue that with the tax penalty eliminated, the mandate — and with it the entire law — should be struck down.

“The U.S. Supreme Court already admitted that an individual mandate without a tax penalty is unconstitutional,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “With no remaining legitimate basis for the law, it is time that Americans are finally free from the stranglehold of Obamacare, once and for all.”

Paxton and Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel are leading the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Fort Worth.

The Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, the most controversial part of Obamacare, was meant to force younger and healthier people to get coverage to help keep premiums low.

Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer, who assumed office last month after Sam Brownback took a job with the Trump administration as U.S. ambassador of religious freedom, said he supports the legal challenge.

In a statement released by Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, Colyer, a plastic surgeon, said, “The legal and policy failures of Obamacare are well known, and I am pleased that Kansas is joining this new effort to expose them.”

The Republican-led Congress eliminated the requirement that individuals have health insurance or pay a tax penalty as part of the tax overhaul it passed in December on a strictly party line vote. But the mandate that people have health insurance technically remained in place.

In addition to Missouri, Kansas, Texas and Wisconsin, the other states joining the suit are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia.

All but eight of those 20 states have opted not to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor for the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.

By Dewey Terrill

GEARY COUNTY —Firefighters converged on a rural location about seven miles east of Junction City Friday afternoon to battle a fast-moving fire that covered rural open land.

No one was injured and no structures were damaged.

Geary County Rural Fire Chief Garry Berges estimated that approximately 1,000 acres of grassland burned in the blaze which covered portions of Geary and Riley counties.  Berges said firefighters got the call to respond to the Interstate 70 location where the blaze began near mile post 305 about 3:30 to 3:45 p.m. “Looks like somebody driving along probably discarded some smoking material out. It just started roaring straight north, all open ground aided by the wind. My first fire truck on scene said he was doing 35 mph across country and couldn’t keep up where the fire was.”

Berges noted Geary County Rural Fire responded with eight trucks, Riley County had eight or nine, the Fort Riley Fire Department two trucks and the Kansas Forestry Task Force based in Manhattan provided two trucks and a supervisor vehicle. Additional assistance came from the Grandview Plaza Fire Department and numerous farm producers who provided water to help battle the blaze.

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Earlier about 10:30 Friday morning Geary County rural firefighters also responded to a small blaze near I-70 milepost 309 in the eastern part of the county where an estimated two to three acres burned. No one was injured there. Berges confirmed that blaze was put out quickly.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita woman and her daughter will repay a bank after repeatedly withdrawing money from an ATM that was dispensing $100 bills rather $5 bills.

Central National Bank sued Christina Ochoa and her mother, Christy Ochoa, after they withdrew more than $14,000 in January. The bank contended the women returned to the ATM more than 50 times after realizing the machine’s malfunction. Most of the trips were in the middle of the night.

Court records indicate the women have agreed to repay $12,643 plus interest, as well as costs.

The women earlier told the newspaper they wanted $1,485 to make a “money cake” for a friend. They said they made repeated withdrawals because they couldn’t get the exact number of $5 bills they needed and the bank was closed.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A man has been convicted of shooting and wounding a Topeka police detective after a convenience store robbery.

Jurors found 30-year-old Christopher Harris guilty Thursday of attempted capital murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated assault and criminal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Detective Brian Hill spent 20 days in the hospital after he was wounded in November 2016 while trying to apprehend Harris and Jermaine Patton following the convenience store robbery. Hill retired in September and said at the time that the shooting “definitely” was a factor.

Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay says Harris faces life in prison without parole for at least 25 years when he is sentenced May 3.

Patton pleaded guilty in September to federal aiding and abetting charges.