Sotomayor Quits All-Women's Club

Supreme Court Nominee Resigns From Club After Republicans Questioned Her Participation

(AP)  Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor resigned Friday from an elite all-women's club after Republicans questioned her participation in it.

Sotomayor said she resigned from the Belizean Grove to prevent the issue from becoming a distraction in her confirmation hearings.

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

But she said 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.

The Belizean Grove bills itself as women's answer to the 130-year-old all-male Bohemian Club in California. The club owns a 2,500-acre camping area in northern California called the Grove. Chief Justice Earl Warren belonged to the Bohemian Club beginning in the 1940s, before he joined the court and long before the federal judiciary adopted a code of conduct.

"The Belizean Grove is a constellation of influential women who are key decision makers in the profit, non-profit and social sectors; who build long term mutually beneficial relationships in order to both take charge of their own destinies and help others to do the same," the group says on its Web site. There are about 115 members, the club says.

Earlier in the week, Sotomayor defended her participation in the group, telling senators that it involves men in some of its events and that she was unaware of any man who had tried to become a member.

Sotomayor's backers noted that the court's only current woman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, belongs to the membership-only International Women's Forum. So did former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who defended her involvement in all-women groups during her Senate confirmation hearings in 1981.

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy faced similar questions over his longtime membership in the all-male Olympic Club in San Francisco. Kennedy resigned his membership in October 1987, as he was under consideration for the high court.

[skyk-2009]

She did the right thing here. The Confederate Party went fishing in the slime and came up with a piece of old Sludge called Ed Meese in their attempt to satisfy the American Taliban on this appointment. It's bound to get nasty with him around.

[gravyboat3000]

by SilentCowboy June 20, 2009 1:11 PM PDT
Sotomayor is a communist pig in waiting to rob you of even more of your constitutional rights she will obey her masters as the rest of them that serve the Zionist agenda in the ***** house on the ill that Americans call the Capital but soon you all will learn the it is not a capital it is a temple of hell serving the occult and controlling the dumb downed masses
______

No more cough medicine for you...

[hakori]

mrman007, America woke up last November!

[hakori]

sloughfoot, I agree loosers have rights, too. I just wonder if you thought the same thing from 2000-2008. But sometimes you have to ignore the loosers until they come up with some new ideas rather than pushing the same ole faild policies. Also, it would be nice to see republicans put country ahead of party for a change.

[hakori]

I wonder how many of these "outraged" republicans had any problem with Katon Dawson when he was being conisdered for the RNC chairmanship? I bet most of them had absolutely no problem he was a member of an all white country club for twelve years. Is it that they can't see the hypocricy they wallow in, or is it they could care less?

[Snowhare]

I am a bit disappointed and I join the list of people who think nobody should listen too much to the loosers of the election who have not yet learned that theirs is not the opinion of the majority of the people.
The Republicans cannot - and will not filibuster the process over this.
If they could they would filibuster Sotomayor anyway. But bipartisanship in honour, there is a time when the government and its party should just move on!
If Democrats and people like Sotomayor listen to the extreme minds of the republicans all the time, they will not gain points! If they make it clear how ridiculous Republicans' ideas are, they will win again.
Don't give in. Standing to your opinion is NOT unamerican!!!

[Sloughfoot]

Losers have rights too. But you knew that. However, she dumped her buds and her values for fame and fortune. Scares me, it does.

[skyk-2009]

She is preventing some of what will be a mud slinging attempt to use Karl Rove tactics to defeat her. Everyone knows these freaks are the best at the politics of personal destruction there has ever been outside of Hells Gates! You don't hire someone as slimy as Meese if you don't intend to use the politics of personal destruction.

[gravyboat3000]

The point it, she should not have quit. She's only doing so to make it easier on her confermation, and other justices, as the story points out, have done the same thing.

But it's not like this women's group was some sort of subversive, anti-American organization. 115 successful women, who promote the successes of other women, how is that a bad thing?

And when will ALL the members of Congress, and the major parties quit their own gender/frat/religious/race/ based groups that I may find objectionable?

That's right, they're not scrutinized on the same level as a SC nominee.

You should have stuck to your guns, Sonia.

[Sloughfoot]

You got that right! But she bugged out to save her hide now that unsettles me.

[Sloughfoot]

That Sonia Sotomayor belonged to an elite organization is no big deal. Was it religious base, racist based or anti American based, no it wasn't. However, to renounce her friends and vowed beliefs to achieve personal fortune and acclaim speaks volumes. Wouldn't want her covering my back in a fire fight.

[lorinkundert]

Just because she quit after being called on it does not change the facts, no more than a bank robber turning in the cash he stole and then trying to claim he was not a bank robber.

[1notrub11]

Agreed, the fact that she did quit after being called on it shows no conviction of her choices and the worst reason you would want the job - profile. Can't we find people who want the job because they feel they are qualified AND could contribute to the judicial process?

[Sloughfoot]

One slight difference, one is a crime and one is a Freedom. Guess which one is which, you got a 50-50 chance.

[gravyboat3000]

The GOOD OLE BOYS, point out that Sotomayor is a memeber of an exclusive club, who's members are successful women, that does charitable works, and puts forth a possitive image for all women,(but it's ONLY for women!), so...it's a bad thing?

How many, "GOOD OLE BOYS", clubs are there?

I expected more from you, Sonia. The fact that you were a member of such a club brings out who you are, a person who cares about the world around you, and the people in it.

Being in a,"gender", based club isn't necessarily a bad thing, depending on what that group's goals are. A gathering of successful women, or men, can accomplish many positive things. Most of all, ensuring the success of others who might not have attained such lofty goals.

It's too bad, you had to quit, under the pressure of the GOP nay sayers, who unjustly call you names,(based on one speech, that they don't understand), and call you out on issues such as the Belizian Grove membership, when they themselves have a long history of exclusive clup memberships, in organizations with completely evil intentions.

Pot, this is kettle? I don't think so, Republicn Hypocrites. You should have revered your membership in the Belizean Grove, not resign from it, Judge Sotomayor.

[Sloughfoot]

Dems control both houses and I didn't see ol' Rush with a gun to her head.

[rmm26a]

What is so wrong with being involved in a sexually exclusive club? Sometimes it's nice just to get together with the guys. Or sometimes the girls just want to get together with the girls. That being said, she is definitely gay...

[dukeymom]

How could a judge now know that membership in an sexually exclusive club is wrong? She will be confirmed, no doubt - but this just reaffirms my position that she is sexist as well as racist. Too bad - again - for the American public. This, on top of the financial mess we're in for the next who knows how many years, really is another slap to us. It's strange that there are protests in Iran and not a murmur here for any of the serious injustices we're suffering.

[Sloughfoot]

You mean to say those in the Ladies Aide are immoral or "Wrong" and the DAR and the Eastern Star and the YWCA, WOW you must have many wrongful person on your list. Anybody not on your list, how about you Mom or Grandma, did they belong to one of those racist or radical feminist groups? Bet they did.

[tbbaot]

Too little too late...notice she hasn't quit the racist group LaRaza?

[Kintari]

Being forced to quit groups to qualify for an office is getting ridiculous, its obviously part of who you are and how you identify yourself. Just tell us what groups you belong to and what they believe. I'd be real interested in hearing her explanation for belonging to the separatist group La Raza (The Race)

[fred-mertz]

You condemn the National council of La Raza, the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the USA, as a "racist group" without any knowledge or understanding of the group whatsoever. You heard it from Limbaugh or on Faux Snooze, so that's good enough for you. But it is NOT a "racist group". Anyone who has the ability to think might want to read for themselves about La Raza at http://www.nclr.org/content/viewpoints/detail/42500/ .

Latinos are the fastest growing voting group in this country, and you repukes are so stupid that you insult them all, just to attack a judge who was ALREADY nominated and vetted and approved for her current job by Republicans, just because now she is being nominated by a Democratic President! That's just idiocy!

20% ... 19% ... 18% ... 17% ... 16% ... how long before you're 0% ?

The GOP is toast!

[Kintari]

fred-mertz La Raza it at least a little radical, and they do support a separatist view, just ask any Californian what Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan means.

[Sloughfoot]

Racist, How?

[mrs_trepidatious]

The fact that she belongs to a club that excludes people based on their sex should disqualify her.

[nextgenman09]

The fact that you're a blog troll looking for attention should disqualify you.

[Sloughfoot]

Why?

[mbievtea]

Quits after criticism ... points-off for lack of backbone ...

[tautomer]

by fred-mertz June 19, 2009 6:37 PM For example, Republicans complain about Sotomayor belonging to an "all girls club"....
___________________________________________________________________

How many Republicans have you spoken to on this issue? What percent complained about it? Was it more than a few million? Interesting that you are able to draw such a generalization as an individual. Or perhaps you are just going off half-cocked, making assumptions about people you know nothing about.

[Sloughfoot]

Good retort, I liked that.

[tautomer]

Heck, I'm generally somewhat right of center and I think Sotomayor is a good choice.
This game of trying to anticipate what biases a judge might bring to the court is ludicrous. Look at Souter himself. Everyone thought he'd be ultra conservative, instead he was quite moderate.

The fact is professional pride generally keeps the justices from imprinting personal politics on their opinions. Legal reasoning is in most cases fairly straightforward. It's not as if a justice is going to start lobbing arbitrary opinions, they all pretty much know all sides of the argument, after all.

Sotomayor seems to be pretty dead on center, so I don't see what the fuss is about. Do any of her detractors on here care to cite any specific rulings by Sotomayor that you feel were flawed?

[Sloughfoot]

Howdy, Howdy: You make way too much sense for this crowd. Bet most never understood a word you said.

[1notrub11]

Well........now why would you quit such a club, unless you thought there was a valid issue or concern? Such an action brings to question the club and its activities or what it stands for and/or the conviction of her beliefs. Either way, it was a mistake to back pedal.

[skyk-2009]

LOL Have you been asleep the last 4 months? The Confederate Party is so desperate they will make an issue out of ANYTHING or ANYONE. They need a new Wedge Issue or face being cast into the scrap heap of history. I mean with the "Family Values" think in the tank and the Record they put together when they had total control, you'd better believe they would use this or anything else they can find against this WELL qualified Justice.

[tothestars2]

"Wheels on the bus go round and round"

[SteelersWinAgain]

No club should exist in America that is based on excluding other law-abiding, legal citizens.

[Sloughfoot]

Stay with football, got to be a girl to be in the DAR, Eastern Star, YWCA or a good cross dresser, just thought I name you a few. Bet your Momma or Grammy belonged to one.