Chief Justice Thomas?

I like it. I like it a lot. Thomas is "young" (56), a constitutional constructionist (more so than Scalia, who will occasionally traipse into libertarianism), and Catholic. A winning combination if ever there was one.

Clarence Thomas has been interviewed by White House lawyers as a possible choice to be the next chief justice of the United States, says the author of a new biography.

Thomas says he isn't interested but could find it hard to turn down an opportunity to be the first black man to lead the Supreme Court, said biographer Ken Foskett.

"Judging Thomas," out this week from William Morrow, traces Thomas' life from rough beginnings in rural Georgia, through Yale Law School to his life today.

Thomas initially refused Foskett's request for interviews, but later spoke to the author both on and off the record.

Thomas likes NASCAR and football, plays a fierce game of basketball and during the court's summer recess tours the nation in a 40-foot mobile home decorated with orange flames, Foskett wrote.