The Justice Dan Snow character played by Walter Matthau is based on real-life Justice William O. Douglas, who was appointed to the Supreme Court at the age of 40. Douglas was one of the great liberals in High Court history who believed so nearly absolutely in the First Amendment protections of free speech that he did not attend screenings of pornographic films (a plot device in the movie) as he believed that the movies or any form of expression could not be censored under the U.S. Constitution. Thus, he did not need to see the film as he was going to automatically vote against censoring it.
Reportedly, actress Jane Fonda turned down the lead role played by Jill Clayburgh because of the part's conservative nature and preferred to do La maison du lac (1981) instead with her father Henry Fonda. On Golden Pond earned Jane Fonda an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Ironically, Henry Fonda originated Walter Matthau's role, as Associate Justice Dan Snow, in the original 1978 Broadway theatrical production.
On July 7, 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced the appointment of Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first woman on the Supreme Court. The Paramount studio then rushed out this film, which had been scheduled to open in February 1982, into release in late August 1981, before O'Connor took her seat on this film's titular date, in order to capitalize on the publicity, as well as to keep the film from looking dated by the time of its release.
Jill Clayburgh was pregnant before principal photography and there was concern whether the bump could be hidden well enough under her justice robes.
The original Broadway production of "First Monday in October" by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee opened at the Majestic Theater in New York on 3rd October 1978 and only ran for about a couple of months, for 79 performances to be exact, until 9th December that year. The stage production starred movie legend Henry Fonda and younger thesp Jane Alexander who was nominated for the 1979 Tony Award for Actress in a Drama.
Martha Scott: Uncredited. This film was veteran actress Scott's only feature film credit as a producer.