Freedom in the 50 States Project was featured in the Columbus Dispatch.

In fact, the state ranked 42nd in freedom in a 2011 study by the Mercatus Center, a research entity with a libertarian bent at George Mason University in suburban Washington. The smoking ban, relatively strict gun laws (the study was completed before guns in bars were legalized here) and controls on home-schooling were among the personal-freedom restrictions that lowered the ranking, said Jason Sorens, co-author of the annual study.