In Reno vs. ACLU, the United States Supreme Court has rejected the Communications Decency Act, the 1996 legislation which attempted to ban the transmission of obscene or indecent material across the Internet.

As the first Supreme Court ruling on how the First Amendment and traditional free speech principles apply to the Internet, Reno vs. ACLU is likely to have far-reaching effects on cyberspace for some time to come.

But the fight isn't over. The spirit of the CDA lives on: more than 20 state legislatures have fashioned their own attempts to regulate Internet speech, and the CDA's friends in Congress could soon draft more court-proof federal legislation.

This special section features more on the debate over decency and free speech on the Internet.