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Glite Dictionary
federal case

federal case

12 5.2
A legal matter handled by the national government rather than state or local courts
  • noun
  • /ˈfɛdərəl keɪs/
translation icon : caso federal
  • Is this a federal case or a state case?

Examples

  • Don't make a federal case out of it.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • This isn't a federal case.

    The Corruptor (1999)

  • This is a federal case.

    Fled (1996)

  • It's a federal case now.

    The Old Man & the Gun (2018)

  • Sorry, Detective, this is a federal case.

    Along Came a Spider (2001)

  • I don't want to make a federal case out of this.

    The In-Laws (1979)

  • You boys have blundered into an ongoing Federal case.

    Drive Angry (2011)

  • The outcomes of federal cases seem to have been ineffective in reducing occurrences of sexual harassment.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Also charged in the federal case were Edwards and Baptist convention meeting planner Brenda Harris, whom prosecutors describe as Lyons' girlfriend.

    Academic text (2000)

  • The jury is hearing evidence in the federal case against the drug trafficking organization.

Synonyms

case
vsfederal case
  • Specialized
∞ 3.1

A problem that a court looks at and decides

is specific to matters under national law rather than state or local law

Surface Forms

federal case singular
federal cases plural

Morphology

federal + case

The meaning 'a legal matter under federal law' is directly and transparently composed from 'federal' (relating to the national government) + 'case' (a legal matter). This simple, literal noun phrase follows standard compositional patterns and is cross-linguistically comparable, so a B1 learner who knows both words should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Federal case comes from the idea that the federal or 'national' government takes on the case. If a problem is too big or affects more than one state, the national government handles it, so a federal case means a legal matter dealt with under 'federal law'.