On 5 September 1977, the Red Army Faction kidnapped Hanns Martin Schleyer, the president of the German employers’ association. The kidnappers demanded the release of imprisoned terrorists. On Schleyer’s behalf, his son Hanns-Eberhard asked the Federal Constitutional Court to order the government to meet the demands. On 16 October 1977, the court refused. The Basic Law, it said, creates a duty to protect not only the individual but also the whole body of citizens. The court could not prescribe a specific decision to the responsible state bodies. It gave the reason. If the constitution fixed the state’s response in advance, that response would become calculable for terrorists. Schleyer was killed on 18 October 1977.