diff --git a/.github/workflows/ruby.yml b/.github/workflows/ruby.yml
index a8a31ecd..dd1e6e7a 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ruby.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ruby.yml
@@ -33,10 +33,9 @@ jobs:
         - ruby: '3.2'
           rails_version: '7.0.4.1'
           name: 'Blacklight 8 beta'
-          blacklight_version: '8.0.0.beta6'
+          blacklight_version: '~> 8.0'
 
     env:
-      BLACKLIGHT_VERSION: "~> 7.0" # only test on BL 7 for now
       RAILS_VERSION: ${{ matrix.rails_version }}
       BLACKLIGHT_VERSION: ${{ matrix.blacklight_version }}
       ENGINE_CART_RAILS_OPTIONS: "--skip-git --skip-listen --skip-spring --skip-keeps --skip-action-cable --skip-coffee --skip-test ${{ matrix.engine_cart_rails_options }}"
diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index dc26db92..fc0ada35 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -9,14 +9,6 @@ group :test do
   gem 'activerecord-jdbcsqlite3-adapter', platform: :jruby
 end
 
-# While gemspec allows BL8 and some people are using BL8... the build
-# has never actually passed on BL8 yet. We may choose to run tests on
-# a blacklight version other than the latest allowed by gemspec, to get
-# tests to pass, or to test on older BL still supported here.
-if ENV['BLACKLIGHT_VERSION']
-  gem "blacklight", ENV['BLACKLIGHT_VERSION']
-end
-
 # BEGIN ENGINE_CART BLOCK
 # engine_cart: 2.5.0
 # engine_cart stanza: 2.5.0