Upon graduation he was awarded the first prize for superior excellence in scholarship in the senior class, day school; and the Townsend Wandell Gold Medal for greatest proficiency in the law of real property.
In 1931, he sponsored the creation of a joint legislative committee to probe into corruption in New York City.
A month later, Hofstadter was placed on the Republican ticket for the Supreme Court, and received the endorsement by Tammany Hall which caused a wave of protest.
[7] He was a justice of the New York Supreme Court (1st D.) from 1933 to 1964, and sat on the Appellate Division from 1947 to 1964, when he reached the constitutional age limit.
He died on July 10, 1970, at his home at 12 East 86th Street in Manhattan, of a heart attack;[8] and was buried at the Union Field Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens.