State officials say Amos Miller’s court filing is ‘indecipherable’ and irrelevant

• By Dan Nephin/LNP | LancasterOnline

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture wants a Lancaster County judge to reject Amos Miller’s bid to dismiss its lawsuit against him, arguing that his attorneys’ often “indecipherable” objections are unrelated to the charges against him.

Miller is the Upper Leacock Township farmer who has been the subject of federal and state efforts to compel him to follow food safety rules.

In January, state agriculture inspectors raided his farm, prompted by two illnesses late last year in New York and in Michigan traced to his raw eggnog. The department then sued him Jan. 23 because he doesn’t have a permit to sell raw milk and hasn’t registered his business with the state, among other alleged violations.

In a filing Monday, Agriculture Department lawyers wrote that Miller’s efforts to have the case dismissed are based on “a barrage of facts that are not alleged in the (lawsuit) and a litany of conclusory statements of law that fail to provide any cogent argument.”

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READ: Amish farmer Amos Miller asks court to let him sell raw milk to out-of-state customers

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For instance, the Agriculture Department wrote that its suit says nothing about Miller being Amish or the consumer demand for his products, yet Miller’s attorneys focus their pleading on those aspects of his operation.

They claim, for example, that preventing Miller from selling raw milk would “severely damage the local Amish farming economy, and prevent thousands of Americans from obtaining food they need for medical, religious, politically associational and express, and deeply personal purpose.”

Agriculture attorneys said Miller’s objections to the lawsuit “have nothing to do with the factual allegations” — failing to have a permit and be registered.

As for the claim from Miller that his customers know what they are getting into, the Agriculture Department said that is immaterial.

“Of course there is consumer demand for (Miller’s) products, just as there is a market for unapproved medications, uninspected vehicles, and other consumer products that fail to meet regulatory safety standards,” the filing said. “The existence of a market for illegal products — whether because of a belief in the quality of those products or simply because of cost savings — is immaterial to whether regulations can be enforced against a seller.”

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READ: Amos Miller’s attorneys accuse PA ag department of lying in its effort to shut down his farm

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Agriculture attorneys also wrote that Miller’s filing doesn’t comply with Pennsylvania’s rules of civil law, including one requiring that filings should be clear enough to be able to respond to.

Miller’s filings, they wrote, are “replete with lengthy and indecipherable statements like ‘infringing on the religiously expressive rights of the Amish community and the religiously motivated decisions of the food from (Miller’s) family farm, the politically expressive decisions to procure the food from the defendants’ family farm, and the right to anonymity, privacy and bodily autonomy.’”

Meanwhile, Miller’s attorneys are waiting for Lancaster County Judge Thomas Sponaugle to rule on their request to modify his order to allow Miller to sell raw milk and products made from it to out-of-state customers while the lawsuit plays out.

Sponaugle’s March 1 order limited Miller to providing raw milk and products made from it only to family, and it precluded any commercial sales, in state or out, while the lawsuit proceeds.

Sponaugle’s order followed a three-plus-hour hearing the day before that centered on the dangers the Agriculture Department contends Miller’s products pose to the public.