Supreme Court Rules

When is a tomato, not a real tomato? When the Supreme Court decides to tax it.

In 1883, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the lowly tomato was legally a vegetable. Up until then the tomato had been considered a fruit. That changed when New Jersey importer, John Nix, refused to pay import tariffs on his tomatoes, arguing that technically they were not vegetables, but fruits. The Supreme Court justices stepped in and decreed that botanically tomatoes could be considered fruits, but for the purposes of taxation, hencefore and forever more, all tomatoes would  be vegetables, and subject to the same tariffs as all other vegetables.