[Keilar:] Soon, actress Felicity Huffman will be the first parent to be sentenced in the nation's largest college admission scam. Huffman has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud after she paid $15,000 to boost her daughter's SAT scores. CNN Legal Analyst Carrie Cordero is here with me now to discuss this. And prosecutors are suggesting that Huffman get one month in prison and that she pay a $25,000 fine. Her lawyers want no jail time, whatsoever. What do you think this judge is going to decide?
[Carrie Cordero, Cnn Legal Analyst:] It's always hard to predict what the judge is going to do. The government is asking for one month, as you said, which is actually a pretty small amount and it's a small fine. She has admitted that she did this. She pled guilty. She has issued a letter to the court asking for leniency and no jail time. In her letter, it's very detailed, it's very remorseful. She really goes into a lot of detail regarding her decision-making process and how she got wrapped up in the scheme, how she trusted the individual who was really at the center of the scheme, who was bilking these parents and getting these parents involved in this conspiracy. So it's a very detailed letter. It's a very remorseful letter, and the question is to whether or not the judge will look at that, believe that that it's genuine and looking at the fact that she took responsibility very promptly when this case was brought.
[Keilar:] And you would think that would help perhaps persuade the judge not to make an example out of her. So we'll see if that's the case. I do want to switch gears with you to talk about another legal battle. This is a same sex couple, Adiel and Roee Kiviti, and they had filed a lawsuit against the State Department after their daughter, Kessem, was denied citizenship because of a policy that says, children born abroad with the help of surrogacy or an egg donor are considered, quote, born out of wedlock, right? That's the terminology. I spoke with this couple recently and here's how they described this to me.
[Adiel Kiviti, Suing State Department Over Daughter's Citizenship:] We are both American citizens. We have been married for six years now. Our son is an American citizen and we have a two months old baby girl that is application is not approved. Basically, what we were told is that, effectively, our marriage means nothing, saying that our daughter was born out of wedlock just means that she's not our daughter, it's not a real marriage, it's not a real family. That's basically what the State Department is saying.
[Keilar:] Do you think that the Kivitis will prevail in court? Is it hard to say?
[Cordero:] This is a really you know, it's an open area of law when it comes to this specific issue that they're dealing with, which is a same sex marriage, a surrogacy and a State Department that now is challenging, which in the past might not have been challenged under prior administrations. To be clear, the Supreme Court since 2015 says that same sex marriage is legal. And so what is happening is that the State Department is interpreting an older version of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and now saying that various provisions, because it's very, very detailed in the Immigration and Nationality Act, the INA. It's very detailed with respect to a father, whether a father is the biological link to the child or whether the mother is the biological link to the child and how long the parents have been in the United States, if one is a citizen or one is not. There's all sorts of different variations is the point. And so they're going to challenge this. It might be it will work its way through the courts. It potentially could end up in the Supreme Court or it also is an area where Congress could clarify the law.
[Keilar:] I almost laugh at that one to think of a divided Congress and if they would take this up. Carrie, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Andrew Yang promises to give ten families $1,000 a month as an experiment. But was his debate stunt even legal? Plus, new CNN reporting that Beto O'Rourke's promise to take away assault weapons is sending shockwaves through Capitol Hill.