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A D.C. Superior Court judge upheld a D.C. law to control its own tax dollars on Friday afternoon—a major step in the District’s long road toward autonomy.

Back in 2013, 83 percent of voters approved a referendum for the Budget Autonomy Act, which gives the city the right to spend locally raised funds without Congressional approval. But the case has been tied up in court ever since, pitting Mayor Muriel Bowser and members of the D.C. Council against the District’s chief financial officer, who was represented in court by the D.C. Attorney General’s Office (when Vince Gray was in office, he sided with the chief financial officer, saying that the act violated federal law).

After years in complicated limbo, Judge Brian Holeman found that the Home Rule Act allowed for the Budget Autonomy Act.

The “ruling marks an historic step in the District’s quest for autonomy, and is a seminal day in the history of Home Rule,” D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson said in a release. (He also called the day the D.C. Council chose to move forward with the Budget Autonomy Act a “seminal day in the history of Home Rule.”)

Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie said that “the will of the people is vindicated. Judge Holeman’s ruling means that, finally, the District can spend its own local dollars without an appropriation from Congress.”

Congress will still have to approve 10 percent of the city’s budget, which comes from the federal budget, according to the Post.