The court ruled that the party requesting educational records has a significant burden to prove that their interest in obtaining the records outweighs the privacy interest of the student. In this case, Mr. Abubakar met the criteria for Section 1782, which allows the U.S. to turn over records for use in a foreign tribunal, and ordered CSU to provide him with all requested records within two days.
Mr. Abubakar filed an appeal to the Supreme Court seeking to overturn a previous judgment, but the tribunal judges did not have the Chicago academic records that he now seeks to present to the Supreme Court.
The subpoena is expected to help Mr. Abubakar get certified clarification of Mr. Tinubu’s education at CSU. CSU administrators have until Thursday evening to supply all the documents to Mr. Abubakar and make officials available to testify under oath about the authenticity of any documents provided. The school had already admitted during a hearing that it would not be able to authenticate Mr. Tinubu’s certificate.