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The Senate does not go into recess. Every three days, a Senator opens a pro forma session of the Senate and then immediately closes it. For whatever reason, three days has become the norm to determine how long the Senate can be not in session and not considered in recess.

Anything more than three days, the Senate will be considered in recess and the president can make recess appointments.

This was tested and went to the SC during Obama's second term and the SC confirmed that as along as the Senate opens a new session every three days, then the Senate is not in recess. McConnell did this to prevent Obama from making recess appointments and is doing the same to Trump.

Often, the recess appointments have been agreed to. During W's presidency, he would send a list of proposed appointees to the Senate and if either party did not object, they would be appointed.

It gets a little more complicated if you have split chambers, since each chamber has to give the other permission to recess. So for the current Congress, the House would not give the Senate permission to recess anyway, so the issue is kind of moot. If the House flips in 2020 and McConnell will agree to recess, then Trump will be able to make recess appointments.

If the House flips in 2020 and McConnell will agree to recess, then Trump will be able to make recess appointments.

That is a big IF since the Republicans held both houses of congress for 2 years and Trump got zero opportunities for recess appointments. Paul Ryan was worse than McConnell since McConnell at least puts judicial appointments through, but both are against Trump.

The Senate does not go into recess. Every three days, a Senator opens a pro forma session of the Senate and then immediately closes it. For whatever reason, three days has become the norm to determine how long the Senate can be not in session and not considered in recess.

Three days is the norm, because that's the time needed for either side of Congress to get permission from the other to go into a longer recess. So basically, one, two, or three days off is simply considered a weekend, whereas four or ore days with Congress not meeting is technically considered a recess.

But, a single Senator shouldn't be able to conduct a 'pro forma' meeting of the Senate, as the Constitution requires a majority of Senators to be present in order to conduct business. so if the 51 person quorum isn't met, then the recess-blocking isn't a valid meeting of the Senate. Pro forma means it's an official meeting, they just aren't really doing anything. If they don't have the quorum, then they're not actually in session. (No clue if SCOTUS clarified this in their Obama ruling or not. Or if it was even an argument made.)

Informative: thank you!