CLCT Blog

Arizona's state Supreme Court has overturned lower court decisions to rule that metadata in public records must be disclosed under the state's public records law.

"It would be illogical, and contrary to the policy of openness underlying the public records law, to conclude that public entities can withhold information embedded in an electronic document, such as the date of creation, while they would be required to produce the same information if it were written manually on a paper public records," said Justice Scott Bales in his opinion.

As one of the first rulings from a state appellate court regarding disclosure of these data about data, the landmark decision has attracted interest from multiple media and government organizations. While a court in Washington made a similar ruling earlier this year, it was doing so in support of a Washington law that specifically provides for disclosure of metadata.

See the AP article for more information.