If the Obama administration was planning to ship detainees to Afghanistan as part of its closure plans for Guantanamo Bay, then a federal judge has thrown a wrench into those preparations. U.S. District Judge John D. Bates ruled on Thursday that three detainees at Bagram air base in Afghanistan may challenge their confinement in American courts. This is a rejection of the claims by the Bush administration—which were adopted by Obama’s Justice Department—that it could detain prisoners indefinitely in a “war zone.” The ruling has important implications for the 600 prisoners being held by the U.S. military at Bagram, along with the hundreds of others still at the base in Cuba. Bates explained that the status of the three detainees, all of whom were arrested elsewhere and then shipped to Afghanistan, is no different from that of the detainees being held at Guantánamo, whose habeas corpus rights were affirmed by the Supreme Court last year.