Roy Payne comments that he wrote a few briefs for the KKK and their march in Skokie. As of 1981 Skokie, Illinois is the home of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education center. But in 1977 it was the proposed site for a march by the KKK and a group of Neo Nazis. At the time the community of Skokie, a suburb of Chicago, had a population of about 70,000, 40,000 of whom were Jewish. Approximately 5,000 of the Jewish residents were survivors of the Holocaust. The residents of Skokie were shocked and outraged upon learning the news of the proposed Nazi march and attempted to file an injunction to stop them. They filed it on the grounds that it would "incite or promote hatred against persons of Jewish faith or ancestry," that is was a "deliberate and willful attempt" to inflict severe emotional harm on the Jewish population in Skokie (and especially on the survivors of the Holocaust), and that it would incite an "uncontrollably" violent response and lead to serious "bloodshed." The Nazis, in a fairly unexpected and shocking turn of events, were represented by lawyers of the ACLU, who said that while they abhorred the message the KKK and the Nazis stood for that they would represent anyone in America whose civil rights were being violated and they argued, successfully, that to prevent the KKK and the Nazis from marching would violate their First Amendment right to free speech. The case was argued before the Illinois Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court, all three of which ruled that the KKK and the Nazi Party's right to conduct a peaceful march was protected by the First Amendment. The courts stated in their ruling that to censor a person(s) message simply because it was unpopular and offensive to the majority was not only a violation of their First Amendment rights, it was also a slippery slope that could lead the nation down the dark path to tyranny and oppression.
E.A.D.A. Jack McCoy comments that "...Bill Kunstler is spinning in his grave". Kunstler was a noted lawyer who championed and represented many radical causes and clients. He died four months before this episode aired and had appeared, as himself, in White Rabbit (1994) representing a fugitive student radical whose actions had lead to the death of a police officer 23 years earlier.
"Kike" is an ethnic slur for a Jewish person, it is also the Hebrew word for "circle". It originated as a derogatory term for Jews on Ellis Island, which is where most of the immigrants coming into the United States were processed after World War II. Back in those days when someone who was illiterate was asked to sign their name they usually drew an "X" on forms requiring a signature, it was known as "making your mark." However most Jewish people who were illiterate made their mark with a "O" instead of an "X" which lead to the customs agents working on Ellis Island referring to Jewish immigrants as "kikes."
When Det. Briscoe tells Jack McCoy that his father was Jewish but his mother wasn't and that he was raised Catholic, Jerry Orbach, who played Briscoe, is actually describing himself.
At one point Matt Hastings claims that he should be the captain of his high school wrestling team, but fellow student Stan Shatenstein (who is never seen) was made captain instead, because he is Jewish. The series later has another "Stan Shatenstein" who does appear in the flesh: the name is used for the recurring character of an entertainingly inept Legal Aid lawyer played by actor Sig Libowitz. He appears in the episodes Thrill (1997) and Obsession (2005), as well as in the L&O: Criminal Intent episode Tomorrow (2002).