Judge free to hear suit challenging government stance on Afghan detainees

? A federal judge presiding over a lawsuit seeking to have Afghan-war detainees brought before a U.S. court does not have a conflict of interest and can hear arguments beginning Thursday, another judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper found no “suggestion of potential bias or prejudice” against U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz, who is hearing the case, a U.S. attorney’s spokesman said Tuesday.

Matz’s son, Jeremy Matz, is a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles.

The lawsuit’s plaintiffs, the Coalition of Clergy, Lawyers and Professors, filed the conflict-of-interest charge earlier this month.

The coalition’s lawsuit, which names President Bush and others as defendants, argues that the detainees being held at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be treated as prisoners of war. It also says their civil rights are being violated.

Government lawyers have cited a 1950 U.S. Supreme Court decision involving German prisoners seized at the end of World War II in arguing that U.S. courts don’t have jurisdiction in this case. The government also contends plaintiffs have no personal connections with any of the detainees.

At a hearing last month, Matz said he had “grave doubts” about his court’s jurisdiction over the matter.

The White House has said Taliban fighters being held in Cuba will be protected under the rules of the Geneva Convention but will not be classified as prisoners of war. Those linked to the al-Qaida terrorist organization will not fall in either category.