Alabama’s Republican officials may be counting on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh if they hope to eventually win the fight over drawing its Congressional district map.

But that strategy could be harder than expected, CNN is reporting, as Chief Justice John Roberts may have helped secure Kavanaugh’s support in an earlier decision on the case.

Based on public statements and court filings from Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and Solicitor General Edmund LaCour, the news network is reporting that state officials suspect Kavanaugh may switch his vote or otherwise assist Alabama should the case appear before the high court again.

On Wednesday, a three-judge panel in Alabama ordered the state to redraw its Congressional map to include another Black district, after state lawmakers failed to do so following a federal court order.

Alabama is expected to appeal.

The Congressional map currently on the books only has one majority-Black district in the state. It has been in use since 2013. Redistricting typically occurs every ten years.

This is the first time that Alabama — and all states — have had the opportunity to draw new Congressional maps since the 2013 Supreme Court care Shelby v. Holder, which did away with the preclearance requirement certain states and regions needed when redistricting.

According to CNN, the court was expected to side with Alabama in a move that advocates feared would weaken the Voting Rights Act. Instead, the court ruled Alabama must draw a second majority-Black district.

The outcome of the case, though, was in doubt from the beginning, and the court’s eventually majority decision resulted after meetings and circulation of memos.

Roberts, 68, and Kavanaugh, 58, have known each other since they both worked in the George H.W. Bush administration. They, and their voting patterns, have remained close.

Kavanaugh has also shown a certain sensitivity to racial issues in public comments, stating that “racism has no place in the criminal justice system.” Earlier this year, he mentioned to a law school audience his grade school copy of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

“On the inside cover, in my handwriting from back then, is written the phrase, ‘Stand in someone else’s shoes.’ And that’s what (the English teacher) taught us was the lesson of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ And I think to be a good judge, and to be a good person, it’s important to understand other people’s perspectives,” he said.

Kavanaugh, in the earlier decision, stated that “the authority to conduct race-based redistricting cannot extend indefinitely into the future.”

It was a position that LaCour cited in August, arguing for the state’s new redistricting map. However, Kavanaugh’s overall position stayed close to Roberts’.

Sending the case back to the Supreme Court may not have a different outcome.

“…the return of the dispute so quickly to the high court would likely give the majority, including Kavanaugh, pause for any reversal of sentiment regarding Voting Rights Act remedies for a state’s dilution of Black voting power,” CNN’s Joan Biskupic reported.