8 Weird Questions That Courts Have Legally Answered

8. Are Tomatoes Fruits Or Vegetables?

"A tomato is actually a fruit" is the one "fun fact" everybody has heard but still feels smart for knowing. That's because, as it turns out, botanists have a definition of "fruit" that extends beyond "would taste pretty good dipped in caramel." Like all fruits, tomatoes contain the seeds of their plant and grow from the ovaries of the plant's flowers. It's simple botany, and who would argue with botanists about botany?

The United States Supreme Court, that's who.

In Nix v. Hedden, a New York produce seller named John Nix argued that his tomatoes shouldn't be subject to a recent vegetable tariff because they were fruits, not vegetables. Nix's argument was backed up with irrefutable science, but the government had something far more powerful on their side: public ignorance.

In a unanimous and very confusing decision, the Supreme Court ruled that although a tomato is technically a fruit, it's still subject to the tariff because most people think it's a vegetable. Apparently something false can become true if people are wrong about it hard enough, even in the days before Wikipedia.

Verdict: A tomato is a vegetable and not a fruit, despite being a fruit and not a vegetable.