The update on the Amos Miller case indicates that about a month ago, a federal judge appointed an expert to work with Mr. Miller to ensure that he complied with food safety laws and court orders, something that he has refused to do for years.
It’s still not going well. The expert has tried at least three times to inspect his farm but Miller continues to refuse.
In the latest visit, on March 4th, Miller handed him a note that said “what are the compelling public interests to be here? Please respond by paper.” Miller also asked about his fifth amendment protections against self-incrimination, which apparently are not applicable in this case.
In a subsequent status conference, the government confronted Miller again observing that he is “refusing to acknowledge the authority and jurisdiction of this court.” Miller responded with his usual sovereign citizen, pseudo-legal tactics.
Miller then said to the court: “if I may address the court, what is the compelling public interest in this case?” His reasons that because he sells his food to those in a private buying club, he is not engaging in public commerce.
We should all keep in mind that Miller is on the radar of the government since the FDA identified listeria in samples of his raw milk that were genetically similar to the bacteria found in two people who developed listeriosis, one of whom who died after consuming the raw milk.
Miller’s attorney, who has been forced to stay on the case to try and help resolve the matter, said he was at his “wits end” trying to reason with his client. It is his opinion that Miller is “impressionable” and is in trouble because he listened to other sovereign citizens who gave him bad advice.
The mistake they may be making here is that they seem to believe that Mr. Miller is simply ignorant or that he “fell into” sovereign citizen-hood through virtually no fault of his own.
I believe this view may be a mistake and have written about this elsewhere. Some people think that sovereign citizens are naïve and need educated in order to understand that what they’re doing is wrong. In my experience, that is not typically the case. Sovereign citizens know very well what they their doing. Their tacts are self-serving and deliberate designed to skirt the law; is not a lack of understanding of the law. It is a mistake to continually tolerate their behavior and only serves to encourage them.