DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court has sided with the state’s parole board in the case of an inmate who says the board doesn’t give juvenile offenders a fair shot at parole.

The decision Friday comes in the case of 33-year-old Julio Bonilla, who was 16 when he kidnapped and sexually assaulted a teenage girl. He was later convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said juvenile offenders must be given a meaningful opportunity to obtain parole, Bonilla was resentenced in 2011 to life with a possibility of parole.

Following the parole board’s rejection of parole for Bonilla in 2016, the Iowa chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union appealed on his behalf saying the board should have allowed several protections Bonilla had sought, including that he have access to an attorney for the parole hearing.

While the high court found the board’s handling of Bonilla’s case constitutional, the ACLU lauded the court’s message that juvenile offenders are entitled to more consideration than adults in parole proceedings.