200 U.S. Mayors, gathered at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Oklahoma today, passed a resolution opposing Arizona's recently passed anti-immigrant law. The resolution was sponsored by Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon.

Arizona shows no sigh of letting up. Republicans there now want to pass a law defying the 14th Amendment and denying birth certificates to children born in Arizona if their parents are undocumented residents. Time Magazine has more here.

The 14th Amendment states "All persons, born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." [More...]

Today, the Supreme Court denied cert in Maher Arar's civil suit against U.S. officials for damages resulting from his seizure at JFK airport while changing planes and subsequent delivery to Syria where he was held for a year and tortured.

This afternoon, the Center for Constitutional Rights advised that following the Supreme Court's refusal, attorneys for Maher Arar disclosed for the first time that the RMCP (Royal Mounted Canadian Police) have been investigating the actions of both Syrian and U.S. officials for the past year. (Canada long ago apologized to Mr. Arar and paid him $ 9 million for having provided the U.S. with inaccurate information about him. The Obama Administration sided with the Bush Administration in Arar's lawsuit and refused to pay him anything or to conduct an investigation into the conduct of U.S. officials.) [More...]

Travel night for me. May post late tonight.

Open Thread.

Busy day today. On your own for the World Cup, as you probably already figured out.

Open Thread.

Before I catch up on the news, I have to watch the season finale of Breaking Bad

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

This video shows Joran Van der Sloot's booking at the Miguel Castro Castro Jail in Lima, and the cameras follow as he is brought to his cell and given a blood pressure check and answering some questions. Another notorious murderer tries to enter his cell and his whisked away. He's calm and polite throughout. He does tell the medical examiner his head hurts. He tells the reporters he's suspected of murder.

24ora.org has published the ten page police report with the transcript of Joran Van der Sloot's entire confession to Peruvian authorities. It's in Spanish. A clearer copy is here.

At the end, Joran is asked if he wants to add anything. He says he wants Peru to close their case so he can be extradited to Aruba and tell the authorities about Natalee Holloway. (In the statement, he also says he asked the Chilean authorities if he could be extradited to Aruba.)

We're driving back from Aspen. Another great weekend at Owl Farm with the NORML lawyers. It rained all day yesterday but that didn't stop the outdoor picnic (Anita had tents brought in.) The Red Tones played for hours, the food was great and we all missed Hunter. Friday night, Aspen top chef Chris Lantern of Cache Cache cooked another incredible feast for 200 at Gerry and Chris Goldstein's home.

it was the TL kid's first time staying at Owl Farm. He got to sleep in Johnny Depp's room and got a weekend course on all things Hunter, including watching a slew of old videos even I had never seen. He had a great time. He says it was like stepping into an alternate reality.

As to the current state of drug law reform, while we all recognized there's been progress the past few years with medical marijuana, we are also aware things go in cycles and another backlash is always around the corner. We are still years away from where we need to be. For those of us who have been fighting the battle in courtrooms for decades, we're so glad to see more and more of the next generation of lawyers joining us.

This is my first full blog post on my iPad as we're still driving. Just got to the top of Vail Pass. I'll be back blogging tonight.

World Cup - Ghana v. Serbia. Serbia should win.

Slovenia, the USA's next opponent, beat Algeria 1-0.

Open Thread.

Open Thread+. I'm still not thinking much about politics. Besides the World Cup and a critical Game 5 in the NBA Finals, the most intriguing story in sports is conference re-alignment in college football.

The Big Ten started it all when its commissioner Jim Delaney declared that the Big Ten would expand last December. Why would the Big Ten expand? (Understand that this is all about money and nothing else. One of the funniest aspects of the story is all the talk about "academics" being a consideration. Yeah, right.) Two words - Notre Dame. The Big Ten has coveted Notre Dame forever and in fact, Notre Dame is a good fit for the Big Ten. And with its Big Ten TV network, the Big Ten now actually offers Notre Dame financial advantages (Once upon a time, Notre Dame's NBC deal was the envy of college football, not anymore. All Big Ten and SEC teams make more TV money than Notre Dame. Delaney wanted Notre Dame. But what he got was . . . Nebraska? Not seeing the money in that one. More . .

Starting lineups:

USA Lineup: Tim Howard, Steven Cherundolo, Oguchi Onyewu, Jay DeMerit, Carlos Bocanegra, Landon Donovan, Michael Bradley, Ricardo Clark Robbie Findley, Jozy Altidore, Clint Dempsey

England Lineup: Robert Green, Glen Johnson, Ledley King, John Terry, Ashley Cole, Aaron Lennon, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, James Milner, Wayne Rooney, Emile Heskey

First lineup was wrong. Apologies. Not happy with Findley. I preferred Buddle or Gomez. Also I prefer Holden to Clark.

Go USA!

HALFTIME - On the worst error by a keeper that I have ever seen, USA is tied with England 1-1. That said, Bradley has the wrong lineup imo. Holden should be in, not Clark. Clark brings nothing. Holden will defend (Gerrard, who has been the best player on the field, beat Clark for England's goal.) Gomez or Buddle should be in for Findley, who also is useless in this game. The English keeper is obviously very weak and the USA needs more shots on goal. Buddle or Gomez will bring that. Finally, I hope Howard is ok.

FINAL - USA 1, England 1. Lucky result for USA. I do not like Bradley's lineup.

Maradona and Messi. Drama.

No live blog, but some periodic updates.

15 minutes - Argentina 1, Nigeria 0.

HALFTIME - Argentina 1, Nigeria 0.

FINAL - Argentina 1, Nigeria 0.

The association football starts early tomorrow, with Greece facing South Korea at 7 am on the East Coast and Argentina facing Nigeria at 9:30am.

The big one for us is at 2 pm - USA v. England.

I like Greece, Nigeria and England. More on these games at Sportsleft.