S.D.Cal.: Minister of church with several locations doesn’t have standing from status alone

Being a church minister with several locations does not confer standing as to search warrants for the church as a whole. United States v. Torres, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 215682 (S.D.Cal. Nov. 8, 2021):

Defendant Victor Gonzalez argues that his status as a pastor at IVM confers standing as to all of the IVM locations that conducted church business or stored church documents. Victor Gonzalez does not provide evidence about his specific responsibilities as an IVM pastor, and at oral argument, simply argued that it could be inferred that he was responsible for the church’s operations. However, even assuming that Victor Gonzalez’s status as a pastor involved some managerial authority, that alone would not be sufficient to confer standing. See SDI Future Health, Inc., 568 F.3d at 696 (“we have rejected managerial authority alone as sufficient for Fourth Amendment standing” and “an employee of a corporation, whether worker or manager, does not, simply by virtue of his status as such, acquire Fourth Amendment standing with respect to company premises”); United States v. Cella, 568 F.2d 1266, 1283 (9th Cir. 1977) (while a “[corporate officer] had access to and control of [a company’s] operations, his rights did not include any expectation of privacy over documents which were kept at the [company’s] premises but over which [the corporate officer] did not show an independent possessory or proprietary interest”).

. . .

Further, Victor Gonzalez’s statement that “IVM documents were stored at” various IVM locations is insufficient to confer standing. See United States v. $40,955.00 in U.S. Currency, 554 F.3d 752, 757 (9th Cir. 2009) (“we have never held that storage alone confers a Fourth Amendment interest in the area searched”).

Accordingly, the Court holds that, on the record submitted by Defendants, no Defendant has established standing to challenge searches of locations in which they did not reside at the time of the searches.

Also, the warrants were particular.