He was a United States Air Force staff sergeant in the Weather Service from 1942 to 1945, serving in Alaska, returning to private practice in Fredericksburg from 1946 to 1958.

[1][2] Butzner was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson on June 27, 1967, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated by Judge J. Spencer Bell.

His service terminated on January 20, 2006, due to his death in Richmond, Virginia, after a lengthy illness.

[1][2] Butzner served on the three-judge panel that appointed Kenneth W. Starr as independent counsel investigating Bill Clinton.

Janet Maslin of the New York Times, in her review of the book, says "Breathing with the help of an oxygen tube and with his speech severely impaired, Judge Butzner is able to utter only one complete sentence: 'I was against Starr, from start to finish.