Wichita ? A federal judge on Friday said an advocacy group for chronic pain patients has no standing to sue on behalf of patients of a Kansas doctor accused of illegally prescribing painkillers.

U.S. District Judge Wesley Brown refused to grant the Pain Relief Network’s request for a temporary restraining order preventing the Justice Department from taking any actions against Dr. Stephen Schneider’s clinic, which has been linked to the overdose deaths of 56 patients. Brown also denied the network’s request to order the Kansas Board of Healing Arts to restore Schneider’s medical license.

Schneider, who is jailed without bond, faces 34 federal charges, including four counts of unlawful distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death. The Pain Relief Network filed the civil suit on behalf of his patients.

In denying the Pain Relief Network’s requests for emergency orders, Brown told a room crowded with about 40 of Schneider’s patients, some of them on crutches, that if they needed care they should go to the emergency room, not the court.

“If someone can prevent a criminal prosecution by filing a civil suit, there would be a flood of civil suits,” Brown said in his ruling from the bench.

The court planned to issue a written order later.

Pain Relief Network sued the Justice Department and the state earlier this month, claiming the clinic’s 1,000 patients have been unable to find adequate care since Schneider’s medical license was suspended in January.

In its lawsuit, the Pain Relief Network challenged the constitutionality of the Controlled Substances Act, arguing that it allows the federal government to improperly intrude into the physician-patient relationship. The act governs how doctors prescribe drugs.

The group also asked the federal court to declare that patients have a fundamental right to receive pain relief through pharmaceuticals approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

In his ruling, Brown said the group had not established that it would likely prevail in its lawsuit. He also called some of its claims frivolous and agreed with arguments from the Justice Department and the state that the Pain Relief Network, a nonprofit group incorporated in New York, had no standing.

Even if the Pain Relief Network had standing, federal courts should not interfere with a state proceeding, the judge said.

Brown also declined to order the Kansas Board of Healing Arts to allow Dr. Joseph M. Sack to take over Schneider’s clinic until the criminal case has been decided.

Schneider and his wife, nurse Linda Schneider, were indicted in December. Besides unlawful distribution of a controlled substance, they were charged with conspiracy, health care fraud, illegal money transactions and money laundering. They are accused of directly causing four deaths and contributing to 11 others.

Pain Relief Network had also asked for a court order stopping the Justice Department from taking “further harassing actions” against the clinic in its operation under Sack.

“The court will not prevent it from doing its duty by issuing an injunction,” Brown said.

Outside the courtroom, Michael Leitch, a deputy attorney general for Kansas, called it was an appropriate ruling.

“Strangers don’t get to enforce the constitutional rights of others, and the PRN is a stranger here. They are a New York corporation,” Leitch said.

Jim Cross, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren, said, “The court adopted the argument we presented to them and I think the court was right.”

Siobhan Reynolds, president of the Pain Relief Network, said her group had 40 members from Kansas and believes it has standing in the case. The judge did not take into account the affidavits of Dr. Schneider’s patients who told the judge they could not find adequate care, she said.

“Unfortunately it is yet another example of government at any level not acknowledging people in pain,” Reynolds said.