Ah, for something like that you'd probably want to serve AOL with a subpoena anyway, so there would be a certified evidence trail. Asking for "any and all dates on which there is any recorded action with regard to the URL, and for each date, specify any and all actions taken -- insofar as this information is preserved" -- would preserve editor confidentiality and still get you all the advantage you could get from that information. For your own satisfaction, there seems to have been a submittal date around 29/Aug/2001, and the first review date seems to be 13/Apr/2002. And at first the site was listed in
http://dmoz.org/Home/Consumer_Information/Auctions/ before that category was further subdivided.
But still -- don't try to take any of THAT to the court. Who is to say whether the site submitted (or reviewed) is the same as the site you have today? (Every editor knows how many jerks submit a URL without any site at all -- hoping, I suppose, to develop the site after it gets listed! I have no reason to believe that happened here, but I definitely can't prove it one way or another.) So what you're asking about is, I think, not going to serve your need. The wayback machine is your friend here: also your regular, dated system backups.