According to the metrics used by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, New York was the least free of all the states in 2011. It was also dead last in 2009, 2007, and 2001. Of course, North Dakota was crowned the most free state in America, and it just passed the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, so it’s all in the eye of the beholder. (The Mercatus Center says that, because abortion can be viewed as either the taking of individual freedom or the exercising of individual freedom, it is “not included … in our overall index.” Don’t like it? Make your own freedom index.)
