United States open-container laws

There are public places in the United States where open containers are explicitly permitted:

• Hood River, Oregon. This port city that rests along the Columbia River has no open container laws, and allows drinking in public.[3]
• The city of Butte, Montana, prohibits open containers only between 2am and 8am. Drinking openly in the street is allowed throughout the city (and elsewhere in Montana where no local laws exist) during the other 18 hours of the day.[4] A recent attempt to pass a comprehensive open container prohibition in Butte met with widespread opposition and was dropped.[5] However, Montana state law does prohibit open containers in vehicles on a highway.[6]
• In the Power & Light District of Kansas City, Missouri, a special Missouri state law[7] preempts Kansas City's ordinary local law against open containers[8] and allows the possession and consumption of alcoholic beverages on the street in open plastic containers.[9] Although Missouri has no statewide open container law, the Power & Light District remains the only part of Kansas City where open containers are allowed actually on the street, and throughout the rest of Kansas City, open containers remain expressly prohibited.
• In unincorporated Clark County, Nevada (including the Las Vegas Strip) the laws allow the possession and consumption on the street of alcoholic beverages except within parking lots or, if the alcohol was purchased in a closed container, on the premises of or within 1000 feet of the store from which it was purchased.[10] It is also illegal to possess a glass or aluminum beverage container on specially designated streets during special events, such as the Strip on New Year's Eve.[11]
• The entertainment district along Beale Street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, is specially exempt from both Tennessee's statewide open container ban and Memphis's local open container ban, thereby permitting the open consumption of alcoholic beverages on the street.
• The city of New Orleans, Louisiana allows the possession and consumption on the street of any alcoholic beverage in an open plastic container (not in glass bottles or containers). In some parts of Louisiana, however, open containers are still prohibited, despite the fact that drive-thru frozen daiquiri stands are legal.[12]
• In the Savannah Historic District of Downtown Savannah, Georgia, city law allows possession and consumption on the street of one alcoholic beverage in an open plastic container of not more than 16 ounces.[13] Because Georgia has no state public open container law, the city law governs. Throughout the rest of Savannah, however, open containers remain prohibited.
• Within an approximately 80-acre area of Downtown Dalton, Georgia, city law allows possession and consumption on the street of one alcoholic beverage in an open paper or plastic cup of no more than 16 ounces between 12:30 p.m. and midnight.[14] The boundaries of the permitted area are Hawthorne Street, the western right-of-way of the L&N Railway, Morris Street, and Thornton Avenue.[14] The beverage must be dispensed by a licensed establishment in the designated area in a cup that meets specifications issued by the Downtown Dalton Development Authority.[14] Throughout the rest of Dalton, however, open containers remain prohibited.[15]
• The town of Fredericksburg, Texas allows open containers of beer or wine (no liquor) in its Main street shopping district.
• The state of Ohio, since 2015, allows cities to create a limited number of designated "outdoor refreshment areas" where alcoholic beverages are permitted (Sub. H.B. No. 47). Cities that have created these districts include Canton, Delaware, Hamilton, Lancaster, Lorain, Middletown and Toledo.[16][17][18]
• The city of Mobile, Alabama allows open plastic containers with a commercially printed name and/or logo of a designated licensee.[19]
• The city of Tampa, Florida allows up to two drinks in plastic containers per person on the Tampa Riverwalk, purchased from one of the licensed facilities along it, between 11am and 1am.[20]

Indiana actually has no restrictions on the open carrying of alcohol in public spaces. Patrons are allowed to carry an alcoholic beverage in its original container out of a premise and consume it on the sidewalks. [21]