Making a Federal Case Out of it
Did you know that the tomato stood trial in the Supreme Court? In an 1893 decision Nix v. Hedden the question was whether the tomato was a fruit or vegetable. A group of greens grocers sued the State of New York. The state taxed vegetables at that time, but not fruit. The grocers stated — correctly, botanically speaking — that the tomato was a fruit. Botanists consider it a berry. But the Court sided with the state. A later jurist explained the Court’s reasoning, “In common parlance tomatoes are vegetables…”
This entry was posted
on Monday, July 19th, 2010 at 10:28 am and is filed under Tomatoes.
