Washington ? On the verge of choosing his first Supreme Court nominee, President Barack Obama has already provided a profile of the person he is likely to pick: an intellectual heavyweight with a “common touch,” someone whose brand of justice means seeing life from the perspective of the powerless.

Obama is expected to announce his nominee this week, as early as Tuesday. He has interviewed at least two finalists for the position, according to an official familiar with Obama’s thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. One of those interviewed is federal appeals court judge Diane Wood, officials said last week.

Obama’s words, his young presidency and his own life experience reveal what the nation should expect in his choice — and help explain how the president is making a decision that will endure long after he leaves office.

“You have to have not only the intellect to be able to effectively apply the law to cases before you,” Obama said in an interview carried Saturday on C-SPAN television. “But you have to be able to stand in somebody else’s shoes and see through their eyes and get a sense of how the law might work or not work in practical day-to-day living.”

That quality — Obama calls it empathy — is a huge factor in picking a successor to retiring Justice David Souter. Among the others Obama is weighing: judicial philosophy, intellectual sway, gender, ethnicity, age and the politics of Senate confirmation.

He is expected to choose a woman, and perhaps someone who is Hispanic, but insists he will not be “weighed down” by demographics.

The six people known to be under consideration by Obama are U.S. Appeals Court judges Wood and Sonia Sotomayor, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno.