Karen Tracy is Professor and Chair of Communication at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She was elected a Distinguished Scholar at the National Communication Association in 2010 and a Fellow in the International Communication Association in 2013. Tracy is a discourse analyst who studies and teaches about institutional talk, particularly in justice, academic, and governance sites.

• Acknowledgments Introduction I Discourse in State Supreme Courts 1 The Genre of Oral Argument 2 Naming of Litigants 3 Ideology in Judges' Questioning 4 Identity-Work in Judicial Opinions II Discourse in Judicial Committee Hearings 5 The Legislative Hearing Genre 6 Religion, Citizenship, and Identity in U.S. Law-Making 7 Storytelling and Social Change III Comparisons and Conclusions 8 Morality Arguments in the DOMA Legislative and Supreme Court Debates 9 Discourse, Law, and Social Change References

"Tracy uses transcripts of marriage equality debates in state supreme courts and state legislatures to chart a vertiginous change, from 2003 to 2013, in discourse as well as in society regarding this matter. She studies the transcripts to reveal concepts and strategies as well as the characteristics of the speakers, and to charter the evolution of debates regarding same sex marriage... Finally, Tracy highlights the transformation of moral arguments from beingused mainly by those against marriage equality from a religious viewpoint, to becoming central for those in favor because it is 'the right thing to do.'"--Choice