Antedating of "Make A Federal Case Out Of It"

[Fred Shapiro]

The phrase "make a federal case out of it" is not in OED or HDAS.  The
earliest that has been found for this, I believe, is a 1955 _Time_
citation in Merriam-Webster's files.  I have found the following on
ProQuest:

1952 _N.Y. Times_ 6 Apr. X1  But we won't make a Federal case of it; the
point is that "Singin' in the Rain" kids an era and a style of
film-production about as well as it has ever been done.

Fred Shapiro


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------