The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Sunday temporarily stayed Senator Lindsey Graham’s scheduled testimony before a grand jury in Georgia on Tuesday. This decision results from an appeal from the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Judge Robert McBurney of the Superior Court of Fulton County granted a subpoena for Graham in July, along with former mayor of New York City and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, to testify before a “special purpose grand jury” tasked with investigating alleged efforts to undermine Georgia’s election integrity after the 2020 presidential election. Last Monday, District Judge Leigh Martin May ruled that Graham had to testify before the Fulton County grand jury.

The Eleventh Circuit temporarily stayed the testimony pending the resolution of Graham’s emergency motion to stay May’s order. The court remanded the case back to May to determine whether Graham is entitled to a partial quashal or modification of the subpoena. The order also requires the parties to brief the issue if the subpoena should be partially quashed for affording protections of the US Constitution’s speech or debate clause.

The speech or debate clause can protect lawmakers from having to discuss legislative activity. May rejected this argument because the clause does not shield speech that is “political” in nature from inquiry, only speech that is “legislative.”