A Right to a Public Record's Metadata?

There is such a right, according to the Arizona Supreme Court.  (See also here and here.  The opinion is here.) 

The issue is a bit different from the legal ethics version of the problem that we have long debated (i.e., whether lawyers can look at the metadata in an opponent's electronic documents).  The Arizona Supreme Court addressed whether the public has a right to see the metadata contained in electronic versions of public records, which might reveal (for example) whether a lobbyist drafted a particular report or memorandum.

I don't know much about public records law, but this sounds like the right answer to me.  If a document is a public record, the public should be able to find out who authored the document, who edited it, when it was created, etc., assuming that the information is embedded in the public record itself.

Thanks to former student, Adam Holland, for alerting me to the story.