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How do these open container laws work, anyway? Is having an open container of alcohol in the car actually an offence, even if there are other adults in the car, or does it just provide reasonable fourth-amendment grounds for stopping the car and testing the driver for intoxication?

As far as I know, if I am stopped with an empty beer bottle in my backseat (passenger area), I can be fined for that. Even if I am dead sober. The laws vary from state to state, but I'm pretty sure this is how it works. I do think it was intended as the latter, and if I were coming home from the beach a day after a party with a six-pack of empty beer bottles I was intending to recycle in my backseat I doubt I would be prosecuted just for that. If I were stopped in the middle of the night for weaving on the road, passed a field sobriety test but had some empty bottles in the car, they would probably nail me. If I was stopped with an open beer in my hand, I'd definately get it.
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Mark Cushman