Four Peculiar Supreme Court Cases

Supreme Courts aren’t immune to their fair share of wacky antics, and considering how long the US Supreme Court has been around, a few strange cases were just bound to happen. If it’s somewhere filled with people handling a variety of cases, you’d have to expect some absurd things to go down at some point.

Below are some of the odd cases heard in Court. Brace yourselves—some of them are somewhat bizarre!

1.       PETA and KFC

In 2003, PETA accused KFC of lying about its treatment of slaughtering almost a million chickens every year. Of course, KFC denied the charges, saying that they’ve actually established a sort of committee to oversee the humane treatment of the chickens, asserting that the suit was yet another infamous PETA publicity stunt.

2.       Tomato: A Fruit or Vegetable?

This has to be a question a lot of us have asked all our lives! In 1893, importers took a case to court involving New York’s Customs Collector, arguing that since the tomato was botanically a fruit, it ought to be free of tariff duties. In the end, it had been established that even though tomatoes are actually fruits, since people believed them to be vegetables, they were considered as such, leaving the humble tomato to continue shouldering its high import duties.

3.       The Peanut Shell Case

In 2002, a lawsuit was filed against Longhorn Steaks by a certain Ruth McHenry. McHenry slipped and broke her leg due to some peanut shells on the floor. When asked if she exercised reasonable care, McHenry simply said that she assumed the restaurant knew best, since it instituted the practice of throwing shells on the floor! The case was later dismissed, saying that McHenry’s knowledge of the shells on the floor was sound.

4.       The Mr. T Debacle

In 2003, the celebrity Mr. T filed a lawsuit against Best Buy for using an image of him from the film Rocky III, which had been modified and altered, making him look like he’s aging and out of shape! Mr. T has since sought an unspecified amount of damages from the Supreme Court.

There are a lot of other strange cases in court which happened in the past. Do you know of any? Share them here!