FACTBOX: U.S. court nominee Sotomayor's quotes on legal issues

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama's pick for the U.S. Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, was grilled by a Senate committee on Tuesday as she aims for confirmation as the first Hispanic justice on the top U.S. court.

Here are some of Sotomayor's quotes on key issues:

HER LEGAL PHILOSOPHY

"The process of judging is a process of keeping an open mind. Its a process of not coming to a decision with a prejudgment..."

"Reaching a conclusion has to start with what the parties are arguing, but examining in all situations carefully the facts as they prove them or not prove them, the record as they create it, and then making a decision that is limited to what the law says on the facts before the judge."

"I believe my record of 17 years demonstrates fully that I do believe that judges must apply the law and not make the law."

THE NEW HAVEN FIREFIGHTER CASE

(Sotomayor sat on an appeals court that upheld the right of a city to discard firefighter test results which did not produce enough minority candidates):

"The issue was not what we would do or not do, because we were following precedent."

"Given Second Circuit precedent...the panel concluded that the city's decision in that particular situation was lawful under established law. The Supreme Court, in looking and reviewing that case, applied a new standard and announced that it was applying a standard from a different area of law and explaining to employers and courts below how to look at this question in the future."

"WISE LATINA" COMMENTS

(She has said a "wise Latina" might arrive at a better legal decision than a white man):

"No words I have ever spoken or written have received so much attention. I gave a variant of my speech to a variety of different groups, most often to groups of women lawyers or to groups most particularly of young Latino lawyers or students."

"I was trying to inspire them to believe that their life experiences would enrich the legal system, because different life experiences and backgrounds always do."

"I want to state upfront, unequivocally and without doubt: I do not believe that any ethnic, racial or gender group has an advantage in sound judgment."

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION TO ADDRESS HISTORIC RACIAL INEQUALITIES