 § 561(a).. As a member of this panel, Judge Dalzell was one of the first jurists to directly assess the First Amendment status of the Internet.The panel declared the Communications Decency Act unconstitutional and in his separate opinion Judge Dalzell described the Internet as “[t]he most participatory marketplace of mass speech that this country—and indeed the world—has yet seen.” Legal commentators quickly celebrated his opinion as “groundbreaking”  and “a welcome break with the American judicial tradition of underestimating the social significance of new media.” .Judge Dalzell's decision finding the anti-indecency provisions of the Communications Decency Act violated the First Amendment was ultimately upheld by nine justices of the United States Supreme Court in "Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union".