Does the reasonable person standard apply to the Department of Justice?

¹³ The reasonable person standard is an objective standard. It does not permit the trier of fact to substitute his or her own subjective view for the objective, reasonable person. (See, e.g., People v. Mendoza (2007) 42 Cal.4th 686, 702-703, 68 Cal.Rptr.3d 274, 171 P.3d 2.) The Commission may have been misled on this point by the concluding advice given to it by counsel for the Department:

So in the cases when it says a real-information sufficient to convince a reasonable person- that would be you-that there-that there exists information that indicates that the petition to action may be warranted, what they expect you to look at is: Is there a real chance, based on what you know now, that there's going to be a listing decision- that you're going to be convinced at the end of it that a listing decision is appropriate? (Italics added.)