ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: In another ruling today the Supreme Court extended free speech rights to cyberspace, striking down key parts of the Communications Decency Act. We’ll discuss the case in a moment, but first some background.

The Communications Decency Act, or CDA, which signed by the President in 1996 as part of the telecommunications reform bill, made it a crime to transmit indecent material in cyberspace unless appropriate actions are taken to prevent access by anyone under age 18. Penalties range from fines as high as $250,000 to jail sentences of two years. Indecent is understood to mean patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards. The primary sponsor of the law, now retired Senator James Exon, wrote it after discovering what types of material were being transmitted on the Internet.

SEN. JAMES EXON, (D) Nebraska: I had a remarkable demonstration of what is readily available to any child with the basic Internet access. It is not an exaggeration to say that the worst, most vile, most perverse pornography is only a few click-click-click away from any child on the Internet.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Sen. Exon was talking mainly about sexually explicit pictures and stories. They’re available, along with a wide range of other material, on the Internet, the global network connecting millions of home and office computers. People with access to the Internet can see just about anything these days, from information about the re-release of "Star Wars" to the centerfold in the current "Playboy."