Lawyers for New York government are asking an appellate court to lift a preliminary injunction on the looming $35,000 annual cap on outside income lawmakers may earn as a result of reform scheduled to take effect Jan. 1.

The Empire State attorneys say a lower court should have thrown out a partisan lawsuit filed in February against the state government, its ethics watchdog and other defendants, since none of the plaintiffs have experienced actual harm from a measure yet to have been carried out.