The governments of New York City and New York state are fighting to dismiss a suit by a group of property owners and renters who say that the city’s property tax system unconstitutionally imposes lower tax rates on some wealthy New Yorkers’ properties than those in poorer neighborhoods.

The suit, filed by a group called Tax Equity Now, which is represented by a team from Latham & Watkins that includes Jonathan Lippman, the former chief judge of New York’s judiciary, takes aim at an “inequitable and antiquated” property tax system throughout New York City in which similarly situated properties are saddled with “widely different” tax burdens based on where they are located in the city.