The next year he was named circuit judge by Governor Elliot Woolfolk Major to fill a vacancy.
[14] Arnold proposed to the Missouri State Legislature in 1919 that voter registration be made permanent instead of expiring every four years.
[16] Arnold was elected a probate judge in 1934 and put into effect rules to provide additional safeguards for estates under his jurisdiction.
[7] In Arnold's first year as a divorce court judge, he was interviewed in December 1915 by St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer and illustrator Marguerite Martyn.
He denied a rumor that he was depressed by his work but offered his opinion that the divorce courts "are farce, a joke,"[17] adding: No, I don’t mean the cases.