The federal government made official in recent days what conservatives have known for years: Conservative groups were not just inconvenienced but illegally harmed when Lois Lerner and others at the Internal Revenue Service targeted and harassed them for several years beginning in 2010.

Some 100 conservative groups have begun to receive settlement checks in recent days to counter damages they suffered from illegal IRS targeting. The checks averaging $14,000 probably don’t come close to making up for the harm the groups suffered, and they surely don’t punish the IRS scofflaws (the money comes not from them but from the Treasury). They do, however, signify a real value for political speech rights and a recognition that government should pay when it abuses fundamental liberties.