HOW Hippies Saved the Fourth Amendment

THE NIXON ADMINISTRATION DID EVERYTHING IT COULD TO CURB ANTIWAR ACTIVISM. THEN THE COURTS SAID IT HAD GONE TOO FAR

- SEAN HOWE

IN THE MIDDLE of one late-August night in 1970, radicals bombed the Army Mathematics Research Center on the University of Wisconsin’s Madison campus. The blast killed a scientist who was in his laboratory to catch up on work before a vacation. In a letter published by the Milwaukee underground news paper Kaleidoscope, a group calling itself the “New Year’s Gang” took credit for the bombing and demanded the abolition of ROTC, as well as the release of three Vietnam veterans who’d bombed the power substation of a nearby army training base.

“If these demands are not met by October 30th,” the letter read, “open warfare, kidnapping of important officials, and even assassination will not be ruled out.” In an extraordinary action, a federal prosecutor jailed Kaleidoscope editor Mark Knops for six months for refusing to answer questions before a grand jury. Although the authorities thought they knew the identities of the four bombers within hours, they could not locate them; the suspects’ names joined fellow radicals H. Rap Brown and Angela Davis on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. When Davis was captured, another militant, Bernardine Dohrn, moved onto the list within hours.