In court filings, authorities said that health officials in those states informed them that two people had been sickened by products traced back to Miller's Organic Farm, including raw eggnog. The illnesses, court documents indicate, were caused by a strain of E. coli.

Authorities seized raw milk and other products, and restricted other food items from being sold or used. About 25% of the samples taken during the search tested positive for listeria, an illness-causing bacteria, according to court documents.

In a court filing, Miller's lawyer, Robert Barnes, argued that the Department of Agriculture "materially mislead the court with perjured affidavits" to obtain their warrant.

Miller is ordered to stop raw milk sales

Following the search, the Department of Agriculture sued Miller, seeking an injunction to stop the production and sale of his raw milk and other products. Miller and his co-defendants — which include his wife and their various businesses — "operate in flagrant violation of Pennsylvania laws enacted for the purpose of protecting public health and safety," the department's complaint said.

Judge Thomas Sponaugle of the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas granted the injunction, writing in an order that allowing sales to continue would cause "immediate and irreparable injury."

Miller's legal team wrote in a filing that the injunction caused substantial harm to not only Miller, but also "the local Amish community, and thousands of Americans unable to produce or procure the food they need to survive." The ruling, the objection added, would bankrupt Miller, damage Lancaster's Amish farming economy, and violated the "constitutional protected individual choice" of customers.

Several supporters testified in Miller's defense at a February hearing. One North Carolina woman testified that a nutritionist had recommended raw milk as a treatment for her son who had been diagnosed with autism, and said that "he was a different kid" after consuming it, according to Lancaster Online. Miller's legal team filed more than 350 declarations from customers nationwide on his behalf, the publication reported.

Still, on March 1, Sponaugle issued another order preventing Miller from marketing and selling raw milk and other products, but allowing him to produce them for "immediate family members on a noncommercial basis."

Sponaugle wrote that ignoring legal requirements for the sale of raw milk would "improperly usurp the authority and responsibility of the Pennsylvania General Assembly." If Miller applied for a raw milk permit, Sponaugle continued, the court would "immediately reconsider whether to modify or terminate" the order.

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