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The Internal Revenue Service, the much-feared federal agency, has been ordered by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., toopen its records to groups victimized by its obstruction of conservative political activist groups seeking tax-exempt status prior to the 2012 election.

The order came in a case brought by the American Center for Law and Justice on behalf of some of thetargeted organizations.

ACLJ said ina report on itswebsitethe ruling stated the groups are entitled to seek additional information about the IRSs targeting scheme.

Like the D.C. Circuit, which previously rejected the IRSs position essentially a just trust us plea without the evidence necessary to back it up the district court rightly confirmed that the IRS may no longer hide behind its unsupported assertions but instead must turn over information about its discriminatory treatment of these organizations.

Your one-stop recourse for the best books on economics, from The American Dream Under Fire to End the IRS Before It Ends Us and Godonomics, is the WND Superstore.

ACLJ said it will now be able to dig in to discover the IRSs past acts of alleged discrimination stemming from the alleged illegal targeting scheme, as well as the current status of the [IRSs] tax-exemption application process, in order to determine not only the entire scope of the IRSs discriminatory treatment of these organizations but, more importantly, whether any such discrimination is continuing to affect the groups, including one group of citizens that has a pending application for tax-exempt status and will therefore be subjected to whatever policies and practices the IRS is currently using to make tax-exemption determinations.

The bad news for the IRS comes in a case in which an appellate court criticized the agency.

WND reported in August 2016 the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to let the agency off the hook. It ruled that the IRS did, in fact, discriminate against tea party groups and that its word was not enough. Ithad to prove it had halted the negative actions.

The Washington Times at the timedescribed the ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit as a rebuke.

The higher court ordered the case, launched on behalf of 41 organizations the IRS had targeted, back to the district court, and the IRS sought to dismiss the case.

The judge wasnt convinced.

While it has taken far longer than it should have for them to get here (several years of waiting for determinations, plus nearly four years of litigation), these organizations are, at long last, poised to pull back the curtain behind which the IRS has been hiding, discover the full extent of the IRSs discrimination against them, and ensure that it is finally brought to an end, ACLJ said.

What do YOU think?Why is John Koskinen still head of the IRS? Sound off in todays WND poll!

In a commentary Monday on FoxNews.com, ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow wrote that the IRS official in charge of the tax-exempt division at the center of the scandal, Lois Lerner, got off easy.

She was never prosecuted. She was permitted to retire with a taxpayer funded pensions.

He pointed out, as WND reported, GOP lawmakers are urging the Trump Justice Department to review evidence that Lerner engaged in criminal misconduct by targeting tea-party and conservative groups for their political beliefs.

Sekulow said notonly should Lerner be held accountable, We have repeatedly called for the removal of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.

He said the most recent court order was encouraging, as it means, We will be able to obtain critical documents from the IRS documents that will be instrumental in determining how this scandal unfolded and who was involved.

He cited former PresidentObamas claimed that there was not a smidgeon of corruption at the IRS, calling it an assertion [that] was never based on facts.

When the casewas at the appeals court, Judge David B. Sentelle said the IRS still was causing troublebecause some organizations were still awaiting approval years after they applied.

ACLJsaid last week an organization from Washington state finally got its tax-exempt status,seven years after making the request.

It was revealed that IRS agency workers at the time deliberately delayed processing tax-exemption applications for some groups that clearly were opposed to Obamas agenda.

The IRS investigators asked invasive questions, such as the subject of group members prayers. They also tried to coerce groups to promisethey would drop their opposition to the Planned Parenthood abortion business agenda.

WND reported a year ago Sentelle had noted the IRS actions intruded upon the constitutional rights of tea-party groups by delaying their applications for nonprofit status, and by asking questions that went above and beyond what was necessary to process their paperwork.

Its hard to find the IRS to be an agency we can trust, Sentelle said at the time.

The IRS inspector general confirmed the allegations that hundreds of conservative groups were targeted.

ACLJ has explained a lower court had dismissed the constitutional violation claims of the groups, opining that there was no remedy that the court could provide for the IRSs misconduct.

The appeals court then took an interest in what was going on.

Your one-stop recourse for the best books on economics, from The American Dream Under Fire to End the IRS Before It Ends Us and Godonomics, is the WND Superstore.

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Stunner! Tea-party groups to see IRS records - WND.com