Scandal!
Photo: Tim Boyle/Getty Images
Who knew that the U.S. government seizes almost half of every farmer’s raisins without compensation? The 64-year-old program puts raisins in a “reserve” to lower the supply available to commercial buyers and increase prices. Marvin Horne, a 68-year-old raisin farmer, is challenging the law: He owes the government $650,000 in unpaid fines and 1.2 million pounds of raisins. Horne’s case went all the way to the Supreme Court, but it’s far from over. The justices told a lower court to reconsider his case, in which he argues that private property cannot be taken without just compensation. “You have heard of the rape of the Sabine women? This is even worse,” he told the Washington Post. “The rape of the raisin growers.” Debatable. [WP]
