NEW YORK (AP) — The federal judge overseeing the effort to diversify the Fire Department of New York approved a new entrance exam Friday that will allow the nation’s largest fire department to hire new firefighters for the first time in five years.

Judge Nicholas Garaufis found that the department’s most recent test did not discriminate against minorities. The decision comes after years of court fights and strongly-worded opinions from the judge, who called the FDNY “a stubborn bastion of white male privilege.”