Open Containers in Public
The vast majority of U.S. states and localities prohibit possessing and/or consuming an open container of alcohol in public places, such as on the street. However, the definition of "public place" is not always clear. California is unique in that it does have a state law on the books, but similar to states that have no law, the state law only applies to areas that the "city, county, or city and county have enacted an ordinance" in.
Open container restrictions are not always rigorously enforced, and open containers may in fact be legally permitted in nominally private events which are open to the public. This is especially true in downtown districts and during holidays and sporting events; see tailgate party.
Read more about this topic: United States Open Container Laws
Famous quotes containing the words open and/or public:
“Who shall forbid a wise skepticism, seeing that there is no practical question on which any thing more than an approximate solution can be had? Is not marriage an open question, when it is alleged, from the beginning of the world, that such as are in the institution wish to get out, and such as are out wish to get in?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Parenting, as an unpaid occupation outside the world of public power, entails lower status, less power, and less control of resources than paid work.”
—Nancy Chodorow, U.S. professor, and sociologist. The Reproduction of Mothering Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender, ch. 2 (1978)