Attorney General Letitia James’ office is defending the state’s rent stabilization law in an appeal by New York City landlords who said 2019 amendments to the statute had stripped them of their right to control their properties.

In a filing April 16 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, attorneys for the state argued that a Brooklyn federal judge had properly dismissed the lawsuit, filed by landlord groups and their Mayer Brown attorneys, which targeted the changes as an illegal taking under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.