diff --git a/modules/user/user.module b/modules/user/user.module
index a6bbc413cd0b..4fe50187e55f 100644
--- a/modules/user/user.module
+++ b/modules/user/user.module
@@ -364,7 +364,7 @@ function user_access($string, $account = NULL) {
 
   // To reduce the number of SQL queries, we cache the user's permissions
   // in a static variable.
-  if (is_array($account->roles) && !isset($perm[$account->uid])) {
+  if (!isset($perm[$account->uid])) {
     $result = db_query("SELECT DISTINCT(p.perm) FROM {role} r INNER JOIN {permission} p ON p.rid = r.rid WHERE r.rid IN (%s)", implode(',', array_keys($account->roles)));
 
     $perm[$account->uid] = '';