Movie-A-Day #130: Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1978).

So, is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? As it turns out, it depends on who you ask. If you ask botanists, or any other kind of scientists or fact-driven individuals, they’ll tell you it’s a fruit – the seed-bearing ovary of a flowering plant. But if you ask lawyers, they’ll probably tell you it’s a vegetable. That’s because on this day in 1893, in the case of Nix v. Hedden, the United States Supreme Court overruled science and declared that tomatoes were vegetables for the purposes of import tariffs. And what’s more, the case still stands as established law today. Sure, it’s a strange chapter in legal history, but no less strange than “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes,” which is really a pretty awesome movie.