JACKSON (AP) — Nine Mississippi state troopers are appealing their suspensions for getting copies of questions used to test candidates for promotion.

The troopers represented by attorney Dennis Horn of Madison say in court papers that they received test questions, but feel their punishments are too severe, The Clarion-Ledger reported. All were suspended without pay, some were demoted, and none may apply for promotion for three years.

“These guys didn’t violate any general orders,” Horn said. He said that, for years, troopers had collected questions from old tests to share as study guides. “The people at the Highway Patrol knew about this, condoned it, and all of a sudden, punished it.”

In a Sept. 23 document, Col. Donnell Berry, commander of the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol, wrote that patrol officials discovered in August there had been a “potential breach of the new merit promotion testing system.”

Over the past two years, the patrol has revamped merit promotion “to eliminate extraneous advantages not available to all individuals participating in the testing,” he wrote.

On Sept. 30, Public Safety officials disciplined 14 troopers for accessing or sharing questions on promotions tests. Four retired.