The Supreme Court reversed. They held that: 1) a suspect's right to be free of unreasonable searches is not violated where: a) after the suspect gives permission to search his car, the officer opens a closed container found inside that might reasonably contain the object of the search, and b) under the circumstances, it is objectively reasonable for the officer to believe that the scope of the suspect's consent permitted the officer to open that container, and; 2) the officer did not violate the suspect's Fourth Amendment rights in the case, given that: a) a reasonable person may be expected to know that narcotics are generally carried in some form of container, and thus b) it was objectively reasonable for the officer to conclude that the general consent to search the car included consent to search containers within the car which might carry drugs.
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