The fatal shooting of a National Guardsman in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday ought to prompt a hard but necessary question for Indiana: Why are 300 of our own about to be deployed for four months to a city that has repeatedly said it doesn’t need them? Hoosiers value service, but they also understand risk, and they deserve a clear explanation when that risk seems unnecessary.

All of this could be made moot by a federal court decision. Judge Jia Cobb ruled Nov. 20 that the Pentagon had “exceeded the bounds of (its) authority” by ordering troops into the nation’s capital for “non-military, crime-deterrence missions” without the permission of the city’s leadership. But she stayed the effect of her ruling until Dec. 11 to give the White House time to appeal.

The decision doesn’t bode well fo

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