Sotomayor wanted to be a judge since age 10

Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton, then became an editor of the Yale Law Journal at Yale Law School. She then joined the Manhattan district attorney's office and the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.

She spent five years as a prosecutor before joining the midtown law firm of Pavia & Harcourt, where she worked eight years before her appointment to the federal bench.

Sotomayor is less affluent than many of the typical high court prospects. Though drawing a six-figure income, she lives in expensive Manhattan. Sotomayor earned $179,500 as a federal appellate judge in New York last year, plus $14,780 teaching at New York University's law school and $10,000 as a lecturer at Columbia University's law school, according to her most recent financial disclosure report.

Sotomayor owns a condominium in trendy Greenwich Village. She has had the property since at least 1998, and took out a $350,000 mortgage from JPMorgan Chase Bank last fall, the city records show. Sotomayor refinanced and used proceeds for renovations, her office said.

The condo, the only property Sotomayor owns, appears to be her primary asset. Other units in the building have sold for $900,000 to $1.5 million over the past five years, city records show.

Sotomayor listed two bank accounts as her only investments: $50,000 to $100,000 in a Citibank savings account and up to $15,000 in a checking account.

An independent streak

INTERACTIVE Five steps to filling a Supreme Court vacancy How to go about replacing a justice on the nation's highest court NBC News

Since joining the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Sotomayor has shown an independent streak and an interest in separating emotion from interpretation of the law, as she did in writing the dissent in a 2-to-1 decision in 2000. The appeals court ruled that the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 eight miles off the coast of Long Island occurred within U.S. territorial waters, allowing victims' families to sue for damages that would have been barred if it happened in international seas.

Sotomayor said it seemed that the appeals panel was ignoring legislative history and earlier case law "in an understandable desire to provide the relatives and estate representatives ... a more generous recovery."

She said it was clear that Congress intended the Death on the High Seas Act to apply to any deaths that happened beyond three nautical miles from the U.S. coast and that those who drafted the law wanted to "provide a remedy, not the most generous remedy."

Video   Court ready for another woman? May 12: Sens. Olympia Snowe and Barbara Boxer have written President Obama asking him to name a woman to the Supreme Court bench. Boxer explains the importance of such an appointment. The Ed Show

Her rulings and comments during oral arguments also have reflected a law-and-order interest.

In 2000, she warned a lawyer who appealed the 30-year prison sentence given to a police officer who sodomized a defendant that the appeals court might suggest the sentence should be increased because of the brutality of the crime.

In 2007, she wrote an appeals opinion finding it was constitutional for state troopers to lure suspects away from two vehicles while they searched the cars for cocaine.

"There was ample probable cause to support these searches, and a disinterested magistrate judge assuredly would have issued a warrant had one been sought," she wrote.

Interactive Picking Supreme Court nominees How do presidents decide on potential justices? Here are some questions and answers.

In another case, she gave an asylum seeker a second chance after his claim was rejected because he failed to appear at a hearing because his attorney was upstairs in possession of the document he needed to get into the building.

Sotomayor describes herself as "extraordinarily intense and very fun-loving."

At a recent program honoring the creator of a documentary showing children who have thrived even in threatening environments, Sotomayor, her round face beaming, seemed to be enjoying the attention she was receiving as her nomination to the Supreme Court seemed likely.

In brief remarks, Sotomayor described the documentary as fabulous.

"We should applaud more frequently those who transform a lost life," Sotomayor said.

As Sotomayor saw it, she was not so far from her humble childhood that she was not emotionally touched when she signed her first judgment of conviction after becoming a judge.

"That emotion will never leave me — humility," she said. "A deep, deep sense of humility. And a deep, deep sense of there but for the grace of God could I have gone and many that I have loved."

MORE FROM THE WHITE HOUSE

The White House Section Front

Obama rejects criticism on health legislation Obama: Vacation plans hinge on health care Centenarian voter lauded by Obama dies President Obama, first lady get swine flu shots Newsweek: Dean vs. Obama in 2012? Govt. on track to save $40B in contract costs NYT analysis: Obama OK with small victories Castro: Obama seeking to topple Cuban communism Obama plan could limit secret documents U.S. faces hard reality with Pakistan The White House Section Front   Add The White House headlines to your news reader: