Reuter: A federal judge in New Orleans rejected on Wednesday the U.S. government’s request to dismiss a lawsuit challenging its original 6-month deepwater drilling moratorium. Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc and other oil companies sued the government when it first ordered a halt to deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in May after BP Plc’s well rupture that killed 11 workers and caused the world’s worst offshore spill. The drilling halt was subsequently amended, so the government …