SCOTUS Ruling Big Win For One Woman

Courtroom artist: "I don't like the YouTube idea."

Vicki Behringer smiles a lot. She's smiling a lot more now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against broadcasting the Prop. 8 trial currently taking place in a San Francisco federal courtroom.

"I don't like the whole YouTube idea," Behringer said. "It would affect my career."

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 earlier this week against a plan to broadcast a delayed feed of the trial on YouTube.

The veteran courtroom artist says ever since she decided to make art her career, she's had to struggle.

"They've been talking about this for 20 years," Behringer said. "When I first started everyone was panicked."

But Behringer is hanging in there.  Her pictures have brought to life many high-profile trials, including the Scott Peterson murder trial and the BALCO steroid scandal.

"It's intense," Behringer said. "I don't know how I do it. I just do it. It's interesting." 

Interesting enough to make a natural gift a career. Behringer says she doesn't pay as much attention as journalists do, but she tries to capture the energy in the courtroom.

She's been sketching all of her life, but won't get rich doing it.

Behringer sometimes supplements her income by doing portraits of people and pets. 

And she sometimes dips into her savings to make ends meet.

She says she knows cameras in federal courtrooms may soon become a reality.

"I'll never be prepared for that, nothing I can do about it," she said. "Have to go with the flow."

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