I agree that he shouldn't have said that, but there's no reason to 'make a federal case out of' it. [='make a big deal about it']
Do you have to 'make a federal case out of' it every time I come home late?
Local police sought help from the 'federals'. [=(less formally) 'feds']
(..) research program is sound. What I did with it. Was wrong. The fact that this mother F**** is not serving time in some federal penitentiary is a huge hot heaping pile of horse sh** I know some of you may think that this kind of thinking is dangerous. And these machines violate (..)2014 RoboCop