Veto fatigue is here, but court battles are coming soon

While there's little drama about whether three consequential bills will become law, what comes next is a huge open question

Three of the most consequential bills of the year met Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto pen last week, but the drama could hardly be lower. For now, at least.

Instead, what’s really striking is how perfunctory the whole exercise has become. Perhaps it’s just the summer doldrums, but I think there’s more to it than that. What North Carolina politics is really facing right now is veto fatigue. 

Cooper’s first few vetoes of this session were highly orchestrated affairs, calculated for maximum drama and political pressure. They failed. 

Next, Cooper started vetoing bills left and right, even relatively uncontroversial ones. That failed, too: The House overrode a half dozen of them at a time, with growing Democrat support.

Now with these three hot-button bills, the process has become almost mechanical. The frenetic energy of April and May has all but dissipated. There’s no longer a question of whether the vetoes will be overridden. It’s strictly a matter of when. 

File away the concept of veto fatigue for…