Date: 18 Apr 2005 22:01:10 -0000
Message-ID: <20050418220110.88464.qmail@cr.yp.to>
Automatic-Legal-Notices: See http://cr.yp.to/mailcopyright.html.
From: "D. J. Bernstein" <djb@math.uic.edu>
To: ethics@atg.state.il.us, dsaltoun@law.uchicago.edu
Subject: complaint regarding extortion

I'm a tenured faculty member at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Donna Williamson, a university lawyer, is attempting to extort actions
out of me that I don't wish to perform. She's doing this by threatening
dismissal (starting at the beginning of June) and various sanctions
short of dismissal (starting at the beginning of May), with no regard
for the tenure protections in the University of Illinois Statutes.

Why is this an ethics issue for your office? Answer: Ms. Williamson is
abusing power that has been given to her by the Office of the Secretary
of State through the University Ethics Officer---power that was created
by those officials without authorization from state law.

Specifically, Ms. Williamson has told the University Ethics Officer to
tell the Office of the Secretary of State to demand that I file a
Statement of Economic Interests, even though I am not in any of the
categories listed in 5 ILCS 420 Sec. 4a-101.

The University Ethics Officer has blindly accepted this instruction from
Ms. Williamson, and has issued a false certification to the Office of
the Secretary of State. The Office of the Secretary of State, in turn,
has blindly accepted this false information from the University Ethics
Officer.

The Office of the Secretary of State has no procedures to review, and
correct, false statements by University Ethics Officers. Consequently,
the Office of the Secretary of State has given the University Ethics
Officer unfettered power to harass selected university employees by
effectively adding their names to 5 ILCS 420 Sec. 4a-101.

The University Ethics Officer, in turn, has given this unfettered power
to Ms. Williamson, who is now abusing it.

I am, frankly, astonished that any state agency would set up procedures
allowing such abuses. It seems that the only way I will be able to
protect myself against the threatened sanctions, while the University
Ethics Officer's action is reviewed, is to file a lawsuit next week and
ask for an immediate court injunction.

---D. J. Bernstein, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics,
Statistics, and Computer Science, University of Illinois at Chicago