Reserving Judgment On Top Court Job

King was appointed in 2000 from a field of seven. Longtime court observers say the lines were drawn less divisively then, because there were so many people seeking the job and the support was diffused. With only two judges in the running this time, support has become more directed and personal.

For three weeks, lawyers, judges and city officials have been sending three- and four-page private e-mails and letters to committee members on behalf of their favored judge. The committee is expected to make its pick by the end of the month.

On Wednesday, a judge who is not in contention for the position e-mailed King and Robert I. Richter, the court's acting chief judge, alerting them that The Washington Post was asking judges about the campaign.

That e-mail, which was circulated in the courthouse, also said judges were forbidden to talk publicly about their support, and it reminded the judges of a D.C. statute forbidding sitting judges to publicly endorse a candidate.

Neither Satterfield nor Josey-Herring would discuss the campaign.

Both are highly respected among their peers.

Satterfield, a District native, spent the early part of his law career in the U.S. attorney's office. There, he prosecuted homicide and sex offense cases during the mid-1980s.

President George H.W. Bush appointed him to the bench in 1992. Satterfield presided over several high-profile cases, including the 2000 trial in the death of 23-month-old Brianna Blackmond. A jury convicted Brianna's godmother of slamming the toddler's head on the floor two weeks after the girl had been removed from foster care. Satterfield, 49, spent six years in criminal court, two years in civil court, five years in family court and two years in domestic violence court.

"He's been around almost all of the divisions of the courthouse," said Robert J. Spagnoletti, former D.C. attorney general and a Satterfield supporter. "He kind of gets what the issues are in the courthouse."

Three Washington-based lawyer organizations -- the Superior Court Trial Lawyers Association, the Hispanic Bar Association and the Bar Association of D.C. -- endorsed Satterfield based on the variety of his judicial experience.

Josey-Herring, who would become the court's first female chief judge, received an endorsement from the women's division of the National Bar Association. In a letter to the commission, the group said Josey-Herring had "demonstrated her commitment to the citizens of the District" and has had an "immeasurable impact" on the law and the city.

Josey-Herring, 47, a native of Portsmouth, Va., has never presided over a civil case. She has spent much of her judicial career identifying measures to prevent juveniles from ending up in the judicial system.