[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] ruled Tuesday that California state employees can sue for discrimination over the exclusion of their same-sex spouses from long-term health care programs. The Obama administration had been seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed on the basis of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) [text; JURIST news archive], but Judge Claudia Wilken allowed the lawsuit to proceed [San Francisco Chronicle report]. Under DOMA, same-sex couples…