RALEIGH, N.C. — A defamation lawsuit filed against North Carolina’s attorney general will not go to trial next week as scheduled.Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith, III issued a stay in the case on Wednesday, delaying the eight-year-old dispute once again. Attorneys for Attorney General Roy Cooper had asked the judge for time to appeal Smith’s decision not to issue a summary judgment in the case.

Cooper has previously sought to get the slander lawsuit thrown out. His former campaign rival, Dan Boyce, filed the case at the beginning of the decade over a campaign ad Cooper ran during the 2000 race.

Democrats have pointed to Cooper as a possible challenger to Republican Sen. Richard Burr next year. The attorney general had a private meeting with President Barack Obama on Tuesday.