Lawyers representing Attorney General Alan Wilson and more than a dozen law enforcement officials across the state want a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of South Carolina’s disturbing schools statute, saying the plaintiffs lack legal standing to sue.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Charleston in August, received its first hearing with federal Judge C. Weston Houck on Thursday.

The plaintiffs include four current or former South Carolina students who were charged with disturbing schools or disorderly conduct, and Girls Rock Charleston, a local nonprofit serving at-risk and system-involved youth. They are represented by American Civil Liberties Union.

The plaintiffs contend the state’s controversial disturbing schools law violates their due process rights under the 14th Amendment due to the statute’s “broad reach and arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.” All of the plaintiffs’ charges have since been dismissed or adjudicated.

Sarah Hinger, a staff attorney for the ACLU’s racial justice program, said her clients still face the threat of arrest and prosecution “solely by virtue of attending school each day.”

Deputy Solicitor General J. Emory Smith Jr., an attorney for Wilson and four law enforcement leaders, argued that fear of arrest “is not sufficient” legal grounds.

“Maybe they might be arrested in the future or charged in the future, but that’s not enough,” he said.

The lawsuit names Wilson and 13 sheriffs and police chiefs as defendants, including Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon, Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen, North Charleston Police Chief Eddie Driggers and Mount Pleasant Police Chief Carl Ritchie.

According to the plaintiffs’ complaint, more than 9,500 children and teenagers have been referred to the state’s Department of Juvenile Justice on charges of disturbing schools between the 2010-2011 school year and March 2016. Black students are nearly four times as likely to be charged with disturbing schools as their white peers, data shows.

One of the plaintiffs is 19-year-old Niya Kenny, who made national headlines last year when she filmed a viral video of a school resource officer violently arresting one of her classmates at Spring Valley High School in Columbia. The video shows a Richland County deputy forcefully flipping a student out of her desk and dragging her across the floor.

Kenny “called out for someone to do something to stop the violent treatment of her classmate,” according to the lawsuit, was promptly handcuffed and charged with disturbing schools.

Houck said he would a issue a ruling on attorneys’ motions in “a matter of days.”