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."