This Tuesday the Louisiana Legislature will convene in yet another veto session.

Before considering the vetoed matters that the House of Representatives and State Senate will consider, the women and men of the Legislature should be commended for showing up to perform a duty that previous legislatures had been loath to do.

As I’ve argued on previous occasions, the constitutional checks and balances of the three branches of state government have been out of balance in Louisiana for far too long, or rather Long.

The office of governor, regardless of the party affiliation of the occupant of the State Capitol’s fourth floor suite, is too powerful in relation to the 144 legislators who have a more localized constituency.

I will maintain this position even if the next governor is a Republican and a personal friend.

First there’s the line item veto: part battle axe, part scalpel.

Secondly there’s the legislature’s historic reluctance to back up their own adopted bills by not voting on each vetoed measure.

That there have been veto override sessions at all this term is a credit to the Republican majorities in each chamber. This constitutional pushback is overdue.

Furthermore, it has resulted in historic victories.

Governor John Bel Edwards’s veto of Senator Beth Mizell’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Bill (SB 156) in 2021 set up a constitutional confrontation between the governor and the legislature in a veto session. The Senate voted to override the governor’s action but the House of Representatives fell short by a mere two votes.

However, chastened by the close call, Governor Edwards opted to avoid being rebuked the next year when Mizell submitted a near identical bill on the same matter.

The big win was on congressional reappointment where the legislature overrode Governor Edwards’ veto of the plan that essentially retained the existing districts.

Had the legislature not stood up for Mizell’s sports bill, there’s a chance they would not have either taken the reappointment bill to a veto session or even if having done so, prevailed then.

The net effect has been the normalization of challenging the governor’s authority, which is healthy for leveling the existing imbalance of power.

Though no longer a political taboo, one must crawl and then walk before running.

And we’re still at that midpoint.

The Republican supermajorities shouldn’t be expected to overturn every veto at this point.

However they must leave the veto session with a win on something, lest they risk demoralizing the GOP base and creating unnecessary contention at an inconvenient time as the 2023 election campaign season is well underway.

And their strongest play is State Representative Gabe Firment’s HB 648, which would prevent the prescription of pills or performing operations on minors for the purpose of medically creating a gender identity that differs from their birth sex.

Why any parent would subject his or her child to a chemical that will stifle natural biological development or, even more unthinkable, create irreversible major alterations to his or her organs and/or anatomy is beyond comprehension.

And then there is the matter that recognition of minor’s rights related to “gender reassignment” procedures potentially prepares the way to other dark doorways of consent.

This isn’t getting ears or a nose pierced but a complicated surgery that will literally scar a kid physically, mentally,  and emotionally for life.

Firment’s bill received bipartisan support and was overwhelmingly passed by both legislative chambers. This should be the easiest veto to override, the bill people feel strongest about being enacted into law, and the vote that will attract the most media coverage.

A fumble here would be a major coup by the Democratic governor, who will spike that political football right in the face of the GOP legislature.  And while individual legislators doubtlessly are invested in the less-notable-yet-not-necessarily-unimportant bills that were kneecapped by JBE, good luck spinning a narrative of success if one or two of the other bills get through while HB 648 flops.

Think of Hillary boasting how she got more votes than Trump while the latter was delivering his inaugural address.

An emboldened and invigorated Democratic Party would not be in the best interest of GOP on its third bid to win back the governor’s mansion.

There’s plenty of time and places in the Fall political landscape and election calendar for the settling of other political accounts but on Tuesday, HB 648 is what matters most.

And also bear in mind there could be a court- ordered congressional redistricting special session foisted upon the legislature at a most inconvenient time.

The election of a Republican governor this October/November resolves almost all problems left outstanding when this particular legislative body shuffles out to the rear parking lot of the State Capitol for the last time…whenever that may be.

An override on HB 648 in the veto session will give the GOP a political win but most importantly protect children from their woefully misguided parents and from themselves.

The priority of the veto session must be the definitive enactment of HB 648.

The Republican legislature would be wise to aim small, miss small.