U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor on Friday resigned as a member of the all-women Belizean Grove club amid mounting pressure from Republican lawmakers.

"I believe that the Belizean Grove does not practice invidious discrimination and my membership did not violate the Judicial Code of Ethics, but I do not want questions about this to distract anyone from my qualifications and record," Judge Sotomayor wrote in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, and Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican, the committee's ranking member...