My research lies at the intersection of law, culture, morality, politics, and gender. I am particularly interested in how rules and institutions shape processes of evaluation and decision-making, and how state actors apply and reinterpret these rules through cultural and moral frameworks. I explore questions such as: Why is there a gap between written law and law in practice? How do moral and cultural perceptions shape the development and implementation of legal norms? And in what ways do those tasked with enforcing the law challenge the very legal categories that structure their actions? I address these questions through two core case studies: decision-making in asylum adjudications and gender inequality in the labor market. My work contributes to sociological debates on the interplay between organizations, morality, and affect; the conditions for change within institutionalized settings; and how frontline state actors draw on both codified law and moral scripts when evaluating claims to rights and benefits. More broadly, it offers insight into how the state governs its subjects through legal and regulatory systems.