Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has resigned from the elite all-women's club The Belizean Grove. She said she resigned to prevent her membership in the club from distracting anyone from her qualifications and record. She also said that her membership did not violate judicial ethics. Federal judges are bound by a code that says they shouldn't join any organization that discriminates by race, sex, religion or nationality. (source) Judge Sotomayor claims that The Belizean Grove does not do that. So why resign?

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The nominee's claim that she resigned to avoid a distraction doesn't make sense.

If the club does not discriminate, her membership would not be a distraction. She might be asked about it and she would be able to quickly and completely answer thereby allaying any concern.

If the club does discriminate, would resigning erase the fact that she had, until very very recently, been a member of a club that discriminates? If someone displays poor judgment in their associations and then, over a long period of time, ends certain associations that would display personal growth. But when someone turns their back on someone or something they still believe is perfectly fine just because others in a position of power may question that association that displays a lack of character.

I'm not suggesting Judge Sotomayor's membership in The Belizean Grove is a valid reason for her not to be confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice. But I am suggesting that the conformation process is looking more and more like an exercise in public relations and packaging than a serious examination of the woman's qualifications and record.