A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has ruled that a former North Dakota attorney general and chief legal officer for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines must pursue his allegations of age discrimination against the University of Iowa College of Law in federal court in Iowa.

Nicholas Spaeth, 62, has sued five universities in federal court in Washington, claiming that they violated federal age discrimination laws in 2010 when they failed to offer him a teaching position in their law schools.

In addition to the University of Iowa College of Law, Spaeth is suing the University of Maryland, Michigan State University, the University of California and the University of Missouri.

The case against the University of Iowa was transferred Tuesday to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa in Des Moines.