By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sonia Sotomayor's most famous race ruling will be scrutinized by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Senate in the coming weeks, but the first Hispanic nominated to serve on the high court does not consider it to be among the most significant decisions of her career.

Instead, Sotomayor highlighted a 1995 decision that ended a baseball strike and another that condemned China's forced-abortion policy, as she submitted hundreds of pages of documents on Thursday outlining her legal career to the Senate committee that will consider her nomination.

Responding to a questionnaire from senators, Sotomayor does not discuss the controversial case in which she and two other appeals court judges ruled against white firefighters in New Haven, Connecticut who argued they had been denied promotions because of their race.

The case has been among her most scrutinized rulings since President Barack Obama named her last week as his first nominee to the high court. It has stirred up lingering resentment centered around race-based hiring practices designed to remedy decades of discrimination.

The current Supreme Court could reverse her ruling by the end of the month. Senate Republicans have said they will question her about it in confirmation hearings.

The documents also showed that even before there was a confirmed vacancy on the nine-member Supreme Court with Justice David Souter's retirement, the White House had been in touch with Sotomayor, whose background of hard-scrabble beginnings and Ivy League education mirrors Obama's own.

The documents may also provide further ammunition to conservatives who say they worry she would rule based on emotion rather than legal precedent. Her nomination poses a dilemma for Republicans wary of further alienating Hispanic voters who have voted increasingly Democratic.

Conservatives say a 2001 Sotomayor remark that a Latina judge might reach a "better conclusion" than a white man shows she would rule based on emotions rather than legal precedent.

Sotomayor made a similar comment in 1994, saying she hoped a wise, experienced woman "would, more often that not, reach a better conclusion" than a white man.

"I accept the proposition that a difference there will be by the presence of women on the bench and that my experiences will affect the facts I choose to see as a judge," she said, according to a transcript provided to the committee.

STRONG PUBLIC SUPPORT

Sotomayor, 54, is expected to be confirmed to a lifetime appointment to the high court by the Democratic-controlled Senate. She would be the first Hispanic and just the third woman ever to serve on the court.

According to the questionnaire, she has a net worth of $740,000. She said she owes an estimated $15,000 to the dentist and $15,823 in credit card bills.

She enjoys public support. A Quinnipiac University poll of 3,000 voters released on Thursday found that 55 percent supported her nomination and 25 percent opposed it.

Republicans hope to delay hearings until September to give more time to examine her rulings, which could push back a confirmation vote until after the Supreme Court begins its next session in October.

Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, called for hearings to begin promptly to allow her to rebut criticism.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would not set an "arbitrary deadline" for a vote on her nomination.

Sotomayor spent her third consecutive day on Capitol Hill in one-on-one meetings with senators who will vote on her nomination.

Of the 10 cases she lists as the most significant of her career, Sotomayor included an immigration case that revolved around the issue of abortion, a perennial hot-button issue in American politics.

The case involved three Chinese men who were applying for asylum in the United States because they said their girlfriends and fiancee were subjected to forced abortions in China.

In that decision, she wrote that China's forced-abortion policy had "subtle, far reaching and devastating effects for both husband and wife."

(Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky, Thomas Ferraro, Jim Vicini and Deborah Charles; editing by Will Dunham)