Former directors of a Latino legal advocacy group have attacked Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions' emphasis on the group's work as a means to criticize Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

In a letter, 11 former board members underscored that Sotomayor did not play a substantive role in the group's day-to-day activities, nor in the lawsuits it waged on behalf of Puerto Ricans.

"Neither the board as a whole nor any individual member selects any litigation to be undertaken or controls ongoing litigation," the former board members wrote.

Sotomayor served on the board of directors of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund -- now known as LatinoJustice PRLDEF -- from 1980 to 1992. Sessions and other Republicans have reached back past Sotomayor's subsequent 17 years as a federal judge to try to find something explosive in the group's history to hang around Sotomayor's neck.