RALEIGH, N.C. — Six weeks into North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper’s term, the Democrat and Republican lawmakers are locked in a partisan power struggle, leaving a cloud of uncertainty over state government.

Cooper won the latest battle Wednesday as a three-judge panel temporarily blocked a new law that required Senate confirmation for the governor’s Cabinet members, using a process similar to what the US Senate does for the president’s Cabinet choices.

The state law was passed in the waning days of GOP Governor Pat McCrory’s administration and seen by Democrats as a way to undermine the new governor’s authority. Cooper sued over this and other laws that reduced his powers after he was sworn in Jan. 1.

The decision by the judges was released an hour before senators were scheduled to question Cooper’s pick to lead the department of military and veterans’ affairs, but he was absent. Committee co-chairman Senator Wesley Meredith read a brief statement in which he said senators would still get answers about the qualifications of secretaries and the meeting abruptly ended.

Cooper appointed eight of his 10 Cabinet members before the Legislature came into session in January and they were sworn in. Some legislators call them acting heads. Under the law passed in December, they can be dismissed if the Senate does not confirm them.

The three Superior Court judges scheduled another hearing in the case Friday and will decide whether to postpone enforcement of the law until they can reach an ultimate decision.

Republican leaders called the judges’ decision ‘‘a blatant overstep of their constitutional authority.’’

House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger said in a statement, ‘‘if these three men want to make laws, they should hang up their robes and run for a legislative seat.’’

Cooper said the court ‘‘should not be intimidated by threats from legislative leaders.’’