The 119th Maine Legislature held its ceremonial opening Wednesday with the pomp of swearing in lawmakers, the circumstance of electing officers, the blunder of undermining the state Constitution.

It does not bode well that the first official act of this Legislature is to usurp the authority of the governor — not just this governor, but all governors to come — to introduce bills to the full Legislature as needed. The Constitution could not be more clear, the phrase “from time to time” holds no mystery.

Yet in a vote depressingly partisan, the Democrat-controlled Legislature expanded the cloture rules it is free to impose on itself to the executive branch; the governor now will have to submit bills by the early January deadline or go through the 10-member Legislative Council, a body ruled by the majority party that is mentioned nowhere in the Constitution.

Gov. King says he will seek a clarification by the state Supreme Judicial Court. It should not take the court terribly long to plumb the depths of “from time to time.”

Almost as troubling as the tone this sets is the thinking behind it. Senate President Mark Lawrence, whose brainchild this is, says it’s not just a matter of efficiency, but of preventing governors from springing late-session surprises, such as the 1997 Bath Iron Works tax break bill.

A worse example would be hard to imagine. Revisionist history may be the new national pastime, but it is wise to let enough time to pass before the rewriting begins. Those who can recollect events of 18 months ago would be hard pressed to recall strenuous objections by lawmakers. The public may have been calling “Slow down,” but legislators, especially Democrats, were too busy shouting, “Got to save those good Maine jobs” to hear.

The argument is that late-session bills thwart public input. How ironic that the argument was made in the newly refurbished House chamber, part of a project that swelled, at the Legislature’s hands, from an $18 million health-and-safety job to a complete $50 million makeover. Without public input.

As for efficiency, some 2,200 bills were introduced in the last two-year legislative cycle. Only 80 or so came from the governor’s office. Efficiency is as efficiency does.

And there’s something downright manipulative about the timing. New legislators know coming in that making a good impression upon leadership is the key to good committee assignments. To force them, without benefit of experiencing the balance that must exist between the legislative and executive branches, to vote on something this divisive, confrontational and utterly unconstitutional is simply unfair.

It is not uncommon for this one-day session to include, beside the ceremonial events, a few matters of legislative housekeeping. How much better if, instead of picking a fight with the governor and thumbing its nose at the constitution, the Legislature had cleaned up an actual mess, such as the provision in Maine’s ballot-access laws that requires new state parties get at least 5 percent in a nationwide presidential vote to retain official ballot status. That would have been the right, inclusive, small-d democratic thing to do. Which is why it didn’t get done.

In the debate on cloture, Sen. Jill Goldthwait, independent of Bar Harbor, said it best: “What’s broken?” Before, nothing. Now, something the state supreme court will have to fix.