Reply #215: You don't need a copyright notice for copyright to attach any longer

[AP]

And making them publicly available doesn't put them in the public domain (otherwise libraries would put publishers out of business).

They're probably fair use primarily because they aren't undermining any market for the items. They're a matter of public importants and they're being read so that people can form an opinion about very serious matters of public policy.

Copyright protects, for example, music distributors from being undermined by free distribution of what they're trying to sell. Unlike music, these documents aren't being used by people who are trying to set up an electronic voting company, and it's not like municipalities are circumventing Diebold and getting from BBV everything they need to run an election.