A federal judge has ruled the government can continue to indefinitely jail prisoners without charge. In a ruling this week, US District Judge John Bates said anyone determined to have engaged in clashes with the US military or its allies, or to have belonged to the Taliban or al-Qaeda, can be held without trial. But Bates also rejected the Obama administration’s assertion it can jail anyone who “supports” those groups. The ruling came in a case challenging the jailing of several Guantanamo prisoners.