WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor (SOHN'-yuh soh-toh-my-YOR') has resigned from an elite all-women's club after Republicans questioned her participation in it.

Sotomayor says she resigned from the Belizean (buh-LEE'-zee-uhn) Grove on Friday.

In a letter to Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the federal appeals court judge says she is convinced the club does not practice "invidious discrimination" and that her membership in it did not violate judicial ethics.

But she says she didn't want questions about it to "distract anyone from my qualifications and record."

Federal judges are bound by a code that says they shouldn't join any organization that discriminates by race, sex, religion or nationality.