[4] Feinberg was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson on January 19, 1966, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated by Judge Thurgood Marshall.

[5] Feinberg authored many seminal opinions, including United States v. Miller, which upheld the constitutionality of a federal law prohibiting the burning of draft cards, NLRB v. J.P. Stevens & Co, the labor union case that inspired the movie, Norma Rae, and Kelly v.

[6] In 2004 Feinberg received the 22nd Annual Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award, which honors an Article III judge whose career has been exemplary, as measured by the significant contributions to the administration of justice, the advancement of the rule of law, and the improvement of society as a whole.

His first twenty-five years on the bench have revealed qualities of mind and conscience that are of the kind most sought after in a judge.

[7] Feinberg's former clerks include many law professors, including Lee Bollinger (President of Columbia University), Thomas Joo (UC Davis School of Law),[8] Rachel Moran (Dean of UCLA School of Law), Richard Revesz (Dean of New York University Law School and Director of the American Law Institute), David Wippman (Dean of the University of Minnesota Law School), and David Wilkins (Professor at Harvard Law School); judges, including Judge Gerard E. Lynch, United States Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit (and Professor of Law at Columbia), and Judge Michael Dolinger, United States Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of New York, public servants such as Francis Blake, former general counsel of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and prominent public interest lawyers, including Ralph Cavanagh of the Natural Resources Defense Council in San Francisco and Penda Hair of Advancement Project in Washington, D.C. Feinberg's papers are housed at the Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library.