Virginia Military Institute

LEXINGTON, Virginia (CNN) -- A U.S. District Court judge on Friday dismissed the lawsuit that put an end to Virginia Military Institute's's male-only admission policy.

The judge said a plan guaranteeing equal treatment for women was working -- and women would continue to be admitted to the Institute.

The Justice Department did not object to dismissal of the 9-year-old case.

In June 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the state- supported military school to either admit women or give up its state funding. The first women entered the school in August 1997.

Of those 31 women, 23 made it through the first year. The school now has 48 women -- 26 freshman and 22 sophomores -- among its 1,250 cadets.

U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser ruled that the state and VMI have succeeded with the equal treatment plan.

But the military establishment is still under the legal spotlight because of a practice of spanking carried out by generations of students on fellow students.

In another court ruling Friday, a state judge ruled that the traditional spanking of VMI freshmen by upperclassmen violated Virginia's anti-hazing law.

"I'm putting you and VMI on notice that this is a corrupt practice under state law and it must cease," Circuit Judge George E. Honts III told cadets in the audience.

But Honts said he would dismiss misdemeanor charges against two former VMI cadets if they stayed out of trouble for eight months and performed 56 hours each of community service.

Jonathan Gonzales and Charles Travers Clemons were accused of striking George Wade Jr. on the buttocks with belts and coat hangers about three times a week in fall 1997 before Wade withdrew from VMI.

A grand jury indicted the cadets after the Wade family complained that VMI officials did not bring administrative hazing charges against the cadets.

VMI spokesman Mike Strickler said school officials have repeatedly told cadets that such physical abuse will not be tolerated.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.