It is likely unconstitutional; the President has the power to "nominate" under the Appointments Clause. Requiring the President to pick from a short list of candidates encroaches on that power by transferring part of it to Congress. There are some existing statutes that limit the President's power in this manner, but they're limited to fairly unique positions (the Comptroller-General, which is housed within the legislative branch, and certain local D.C. judges). This Court has generally taken a broad view of the President's power in this area, so I'd expect it to be invalidated.
I'm not so sure. It probably depends on how it was structured. The President would still have the ability to nominate whoever he or she wants. This seems like a way to streamline the process by having certain individuals basically automatically confirmed if they are nominated. There's nothing forcing the President to nominate any of those preselected individuals.
You want the Senate to confirm judges before they've had a hearing, or even been nominated? Good luck with that..
Getting rid of the stupid hearings would be great. They've never once added anything useful or informed anyone's decision.
