Fun Fact: Did You Know X-Men Are Not Human Beings Under U.S. Law? — cinemablend.com

It’s now funny to watch the X-Men films and wonder if folks like Professor Xavier and Cyclops knew that actual United States law recognizes them as "non-humans." Funny enough, it all comes down to an actual court case, which was decided upon in January 2003, between Marvel Comics subsidiary Toy Biz and the U.S. government. All of Marvel’s officially licensed action figures were made abroad, and then shipped back into the U.S. As such, import duty had to be paid on them. However, a distinction was made between "dolls" and "action figures." According to the litigation (via The United States Court of International Trade), "dolls" referred to figures resembling humans, while "action figures" are defined as non-humans. Because dolls had a higher tax than action figures, Toy Biz argued in court that their products, which included X-Men, Spider-Man and Fantastic Four figures, represented non-humans. The court ruled in their favor, which meant that the X-Men (and therefore mutants), whose action figures now legally represented non-humans, were consequently also declared non-humans by the U.S. government.

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