making a federal case of it

[Douglas G. Wilson]

Here's another early example ... maybe just a literal use of "federal case"
though.

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_Nevada State Journal_ (Reno NV), 20 May 1935: p. 4, col. 2:

<<The American Civil Liberties Union has considerable influential support
in its attempt to make a federal case out of the story of the two so-called
radicals, David Levinson and Robert Minor, of their abduction and
man-handling by supposed Fascists at Gallup (N. M.).>>

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The ACLU wanted to bring charges in Federal court because the abductees
were supposedly taken into an Indian reservation.

-- Doug Wilson