During World War II, he served in the Office of Strategic Services, organizing European resistance to Nazi Germany.

In 1962, Kennedy successfully nominated Goldberg to the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Felix Frankfurter.

In 1965, Goldberg resigned from the bench to accept appointment by President Lyndon B. Johnson as the Ambassador to the United Nations.

As the youngest child, Goldberg was allowed to continue school, but worked jobs on the side, including as a vendor at Wrigley Field and as a library clerk, to help support his family.

Goldberg's interest in the law was sparked by the noted murder trial in 1924 of Leopold and Loeb, two wealthy young Chicagoans who were spared the death penalty with the help of their high-powered defense attorney, Clarence Darrow.

[2] Jewish Supreme Court Justices Louis Brandeis and Benjamin Cardozo also served as inspiration to Goldberg from a young age.

[4] Goldberg served as well in an espionage group operated by the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA,[4] serving as chief of the Labor Desk, an autonomous division of the American intelligence agency that was charged with the task of cultivating contacts and networks within the European underground labor movement during World War II.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency stated, "Goldberg's file notes that as both a civilian and a member of the Army, he supervised a section in the Secret Intelligence Branch of OSS to maintain contact with labor groups and organizations regarded as potential resistance elements in enemy-occupied and enemy countries.

"[9] During the Vietnam War, Goldberg commissioned as a colonel in the Air Force Reserve but resigned in 1964 to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest after his appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.

[4] Goldberg became a prominent labor lawyer and represented striking Chicago newspaper workers on behalf of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1938.

[2] Goldberg wanted to be named Attorney General, so he would improve his chances of getting nominated to the Supreme Court, but that spot went to Kennedy's brother Robert.

[4] As Labor Secretary, Goldberg encouraged Kennedy to increase the minimum wage, extend unemployment benefits, create job opportunities for the youth and invest in economically distressed areas.

[4] Following Goldberg's advice, Kennedy established the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity (PCEEO), which ensured employees are treated fairly regardless of "race, creed, color, or national origin.

[4] On August 31, 1962, Kennedy nominated Goldberg as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, to succeed Felix Frankfurter,[13] who was retiring.

Earlier that same year, Kennedy had considered nominating Goldberg to succeed Charles Whittaker, but chose Byron White instead.

[2] His best-known opinion came in his concurrence of Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), arguing that the Ninth Amendment supported the existence of an unenumerated right of privacy.

Finding support in this position from two other justices (William J. Brennan and William O. Douglas), Goldberg published an opinion dissenting from the Court's denial of certiorari in a case, Rudolph v. Alabama, involving the imposition of the death penalty for rape, in which Goldberg cited the fact that only five nations responding to a UN survey indicated that they allowed imposition of the death penalty for rape, including the U.S., and that 33 states in the U.S. had outlawed the practice.

Writing for The New York Times, Adam Liptak said that Goldberg's dissent helped "create the modern movement for the abolition of the death penalty.

"[18] Goldberg also wrote the majority opinions in Escobedo v. Illinois, which provided criminal defendants the right to counsel during interrogation under the Sixth Amendment and Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez, which declared unconstitutional parts of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 that revoked citizenship for those that had fled the country in order to dodge the draft.

[2] In 1965, Goldberg was persuaded by Johnson to resign his seat on the court to replace the recently deceased Adlai Stevenson II as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (UN).

[2] Bruce Allen Murphy, a professor at Lafayette College, wrote in one of his books that Johnson also told Goldberg that he would consider putting him on his ticket as vice president in the 1968 United States presidential election.

[2] Goldberg wrote that he resigned to have influence in keeping the peace in Vietnam and that after the crisis had passed, he expected he would be reappointed to the Supreme Court by Johnson to replace the retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren.

He's shined some shoes in his day and he's sold newspapers, and he's had to slug it out...[21] Goldberg chose to retain only one of Stevenson's aides, US Ambassador Charles W. Yost, a career Foreign Service Office who was able to help Goldberg navigate the intricacies of United Nations procedures, and foreign affairs debates in the Security Council.

While serving as UN Ambassador, Goldberg was successful at brokering peace between Greece and Turkey during the Cyprus crisis of 1967 and helped diplomatically resolve a conflict between North Korea and the United States following the 1968 Pueblo incident.

[25] Frustrated with the war in Vietnam, Goldberg resigned from the ambassadorship in 1968 and accepted a senior partnership with the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

Longing to return to the bench, Goldberg later claimed that he was Earl Warren's preference to succeed him when the chief justice announced his retirement in 1968, but President Johnson selected Abe Fortas instead.

[26] After Fortas's nomination was withdrawn in the face of Senate opposition, Johnson briefly considered naming Goldberg chief justice as a recess appointment before ruling out the idea.

Initially considering a challenge to Charles Goodell's reelection to the United States Senate, he decided to run against New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller in 1970.