A group of elected officials, voters, prospective candidates and advocacy groups have challenged an amendment to the city's term limits law permitting Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and city council members to serve 12 years in office rather than eight.

The action was filed in the Eastern District in Brooklyn Monday by more than two dozen plaintiffs including former Staten Island Borough President and Congressman Guy Molinari; Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum; New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr., who considered running as a mayoral candidate in 2009 prior to the amendment of the term-limits law; council members Letitia James, Working Families Party-Brooklyn, Bill de Blasio, D-Brooklyn, and Charles Barron, D-Brooklyn; voters from all five boroughs; the New York Public Interest Research Group Inc., and Virginia-based group U.S. Term Limits.