He was born on July 8, 1912, in New York City, the son of a tailor, and grew up on the Lower East Side, Manhattan.
Weinstein sponsored measures that created the Urban Development Corporation and the Crime Victims Compensation Board, reformed divorce and welfare laws, established a consumer bill of rights, increased aid for air-pollution controls and Regents scholarships, and promoted hospital expansion.
In a 1973 case, acknowledging he might be violating the law, he vacated the three-year term of a woman convicted of selling drugs, noting that she had terminal cancer and less than a year to live.
In 1980, he was appointed to the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, with jurisdiction over Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and seven suburban counties.
He participated in rulings that threw out unjust convictions, invalidated school financing based on property taxes and decided many other controversies.