Yes. It has always been the case, but it took some investigation a few years ago (not by me) to find out how.
There is a discussion in the thread
"What's not working here?" The lists in
this post show which special rules you cannot have more than 8 of and which you can include even if the total goes over 8.
I've copied the lists here because that thread is nearly four years old.
Limited options [you can have no more than 8 of these, although you can have 2 or more of some of them, meaning you can give 2 TECHs, 2 FACILITYs, etc., unless otherwise noted]:
Specified free tech (TECH, Ecology)
FACILITY
FREEFAC (SMAX)
UNIT
SOCIAL
ROBUST
IMMUNITY
IMPUNITY
PENALTY
FUNGNUTRIENT [only one entry, I don't know the maximum value.]
FUNGMINERALS [only one entry, I don't know the maximum value.]
FUNGENERGY [only one entry, I don't know the maximum value.]
VOTES [only one entry, I don't know the maximum value.]
REVOLT (SMAX) [only one entry, I don't know the maximum value.]
NODRONE (SMAX) [only one entry, I don't know the maximum value.]
FREEABIL (SMAX)
PROBECOST (SMAX) [only one entry, I don't know the maximum value.]
OFFENSE (SMAX) [only one entry, I don't know the maximum value.]
DEFENSE (SMAX) [only one entry, I don't know the maximum value.]
Unlimited options [you can have any number of these, but only one of each, depending on how generous or crazy you want to get]:
MORALE
PSI
RESEARCH
TALENT
DRONE
ENERGY
INTEREST
COMMERCE
POPULATION
HURRY
TECHCOST
SHARETECH
TECHSHARE (SMAX)
Unspecified free tech (TECH, 1)
TERRAFORM
MINDCONTROL
FREEPROTO
ALIEN (SMAX)
AQUATIC (SMAX)
COMMFREQ
FANATIC
WORMPOLICE (SMAX)
TECHSTEAL (SMAX)
[note you can have both TECHSHARE and TECHSTEAL]
[you can even have an AQUATIC FANATIC ALIEN faction]
Yitzi did add some notes to the SPECIAL RULES section of the alphax.txt. I'm nearly certain this list agrees with his notes.