gathering by police at the University of California, Los Angeles. The covert activities included police officers registering as students, taking notes of discussions occurring in classes, and making police reports on these discussions. In the resulting case, White v. Davis, the Supreme Court found for White in a unanimous decision and set the standard that determines the limits of legal police surveillance of political activity in California; police cannot engage in such surveillance in the absence of reasonable suspicion of a crime. Under Davis, the LAPD and its vice squad were known for active policing against homosexuals. Zealous officers are purported to have dangled a youth over a cliff to try to make him reveal names of a pedophile ring. On April 10, 1976, over a hundred officers, with Davis present, raided a charitable "slave auction" event and bragged to reporters that they had freed the slaves. Dozens of men were detained on charges of violating an 1899 anti-slavery statute, but the expensive raid was criticized by the city council and no one was convicted. In 1975, Davis declined an invitation from Christopher Street West to attend Los Angeles' gay pride celebration, saying that he would prefer to support conversion therapy instead. Davis was often known for some of his colorful language. For instance, in one of his most famous off-the-cuff news comments, Davis said, in 1972, concerning airline hijackers: "I recommend we have a portable gallows, and after we have the death penalty back in, we conduct a rapid trial for a hijacker before the Supreme Court out there, and hang him with due process out there at the airport." Politics Davis retired from law enforcement in 1978 to run for Governor of California but lost the Republican primary election to then state Attorney General Evelle Younger. Two years later, he was elected to the California State Senate. He would serve for 12 years (during the first two years of which Tom McClintock served as his chief of staff). Davis additionally lost a bid in the Republican primary for the United States Senate in 1986. In contrast to his earlier policy of investigating the homosexual movement, as a senator, he supported a statewide homosexual rights protection bill. He also became a vocal environmentalist in his later years. In 1992, when he decided to retire from the California State Senate, he went out of his way to recruit former State