North Dakota Open Container Law (2026): N.D.C.C. 39-08-18

North Dakota bans drinking alcohol in any motor vehicle, and separately bans a person from having an open container on that person's own body while in or on a private motor vehicle, under N.D.C.C. Section 39-08-18. As of September 2026, the statute text below is drawn from the recordinglaw.com statute corpus, sourced from North Dakota's official code site (ndlegis.gov) on an earlier date; a scripted fetch of ndlegis.gov during this session did not return the statute text, so it was not confirmed live. North Dakota's rule reaches further than most states: it covers not just the public highway but any area used mainly for public parking, and it treats the glove compartment as part of the banned zone rather than a safe place to stash a container.

Jurisdiction scope: This article covers North Dakota's state open container law, N.D.C.C. Section 39-08-18, and its possession and consumption rules for drivers and passengers. It does not cover North Dakota DUI law. For that, see North Dakota DUI laws.

What North Dakota's Open Container Law Prohibits

Section 39-08-18 bans "a person," driver or passenger, from drinking an alcoholic beverage in or on any motor vehicle while it is on a public highway or in an area used principally for public parking. A separate, narrower clause bans having an open container of one on that person's own body while in or on a private motor vehicle in those same locations. An open container elsewhere in the vehicle, not on anyone's body, falls instead under the owner/driver keeping duty described below.

Where the Law Applies: Beyond the Highway

Most states scope their open container ban to the public highway or its right-of-way, matching the federal floor. North Dakota goes further. Its statute explicitly reaches an area used principally for public parking, not just the roadway itself. Reading that phrase to pull in private lots, such as a store or restaurant parking lot, that are used mainly by the public for parking is this page's application of the statute's wording, not a quotation from the statute itself or from a court ruling construing it.

The Glove Compartment Is Not a Safe Harbor

A common assumption in other states is that the glove compartment is a safe place for an open container, the way the trunk is. North Dakota's statute closes that off directly: the utility or glove compartment is expressly deemed to be within the occupied area the law covers, not exempt from it. Moving an open container into the glove box does not take it out of the banned zone.

The statute also puts a separate duty on the vehicle's owner (or the driver, if the owner isn't in the vehicle) not to keep or knowingly allow an open container to be in the vehicle, on top of the general possession ban.

Exemptions

The trunk carve-out qualifies the owner/driver keeping duty described above, not the whole section: the keeping duty does not reach a container kept in the trunk, or, in a vehicle with no trunk, in another area not normally occupied by the driver or passengers. Section 39-08-18 also exempts, more broadly:

• The living or sleeping quarters of a house car (motorhome), if that area is separated from the driving compartment by a solid partition, door, or curtain. Consumption still is not authorized in that area while the vehicle is in motion.
• A public conveyance commercially chartered for group use, a for-hire passenger riding for compensation, and an employee-driven vehicle transporting passengers at the employer's direction. In each of these, the operator of the vehicle is not authorized to possess or consume, even though the passengers may be exempt.

Penalty

A violation carries a flat $50 fee under Section 39-08-18(1). The violation is not recorded against a person's driving record unless that person was the driver of the vehicle at the time of the violation.

Multipassenger Bicycles

A parallel provision in subsection 3 extends the same open container prohibition to the operator of a multipassenger bicycle, a pedal-powered vehicle carrying several riders, applying the same rules that govern motor vehicle operators.

Federal Compliance

Federal law, 23 U.S.C. Section 154, conditions a share of a state's highway funding on an open container law that bans both possession and consumption, covers the whole passenger area, reaches every occupant, and is primarily enforced (23 CFR 1270.4). A state that falls short has 2.5 percent of certain federal highway apportionments reserved each October 1 and redirected to highway safety programs. North Dakota is not on FHWA's current FY2026 list of non-conforming states (Notice N4510.905, dated October 1, 2025).

Disclaimer: This article provides general information about open container law in North Dakota as of September 2026. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Verify the current statutory language before relying on a specific claim, and consult a lawyer licensed in North Dakota for advice about a specific situation.

Related reading: open container laws by state, North Dakota DUI laws, and North Dakota window tint laws.

Statutes cited reflect their in-force version as of 2026-09-16. Last updated: 2026-09-16.