On January 16, the North Carolina State Board of Elections challenge to the candidacy of Congressmember Madison Cawthorn was delayed. The challenge is based on the Fourteenth Amendment, section 3, which says “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress…who having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress…to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”

The delay is caused by the fact that the challenge procedures require participation of judges from the particular district, and no one knows yet what the district boundaries will be. The State Supreme Court will hear the redistricting case on February 2.