A federal judge in Wichita on Tuesday denied defense motions to dismiss an indictment against a Haysville physician accused of running a “pill mill” linked to 56 overdose deaths.

In a sweeping ruling for the government, U.S. District Judge Monti Belot repudiated nearly every pretrial motion made by defense attorneys for Dr. Stephen Schneider and his wife, Linda.

Belot did not buy into the defense’s arguments that federal drug law is unconstitutional because it infringes on the Schneiders’ First Amendment rights as medical practitioners, and on the rights of their patients. He also ruled that the statute was not unconstitutionally vague.

As for defense arguments about medical judgments and pain management treatment, Belot said those are trial issues.