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Aha, you understand the system! Could he force an amendment of the constitution through congress? By 'force' I mean naming and shaming everyone opposing him, constant demos outside their house, death threats, investigation of their taxes, harrassment of their kids, petitions in their constituencies.
nick_h.-
Ha - not sure about that! There's an extremely high bar to amend the constitution - 2/3s in the House and the Senate or a constitutional convention. It really doesn't happen very often, which I think is probably why organisations on the right, have concentrated on exerting control of the judiciary as much as they have. The idea being not to amend the constitution but to keep control of the interpretation thereof (originalists vs living constitutionalists.)
Say if he goes the recess appointment route and they rule 5-4 against, with Roberts and Kavanaugh or Coney-Barrett siding with the 3, he could in theory, appoint more judges until he got the decision he wanted.
Elie Mystal writes compellingly on this - there are constitutional restraints on removing justices, but few on adding them. The dems have been too timid to try it , but I imagine the Republicans might not. Similarly, a possible rescinding of the Filibuster (though Majority Leader elect, Thune, says he won't.)
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/reform-supreme-court/
Jung
Senators can only be expelled by a 2/3rds vote (not happening) and there's no mechanism for a recall. The supreme court cannot scrap the confirmation process, as it's part of article 2 of the Constitution. The president does have powers to appoint officers when the Senate is in recess, so in theory, a simple majority of republican Senators could vote to recess and the President could appoint who he liked. That said, the supreme court ruled against Obama doing this back in 2014 when he tried the same for some relatively minor roles, so there's precedent that they'd have to overturn to change their minds this time. Not a dead cert, though certainly possible.
I think you're right that this is at least in part a fishing expedition for what he can do with the Senate.